FALMOUTH — Biddeford made the most of its scoring opportunities to support an outstanding performance by goalie Justin Larnerd and rolled to a 4-2 win over Falmouth in a Class A South boys’ hockey game at Family Ice Center on Wednesday night.

Larnerd made 34 saves as the Tigers snapped a two-game losing streak and handed the Yachtsmen their first loss of the season.

“We have two solid goaltenders and it was his go and he stepped up to the plate and did a great job tonight. I’m really proud of him,” Biddeford Coach Jason Tremblay said. “He tracks pucks very well, and kept them off their game. It’s a huge win for us.”

Biddeford (3-2) grabbed an early 2-0 lead by taking advantage of an extended power play after Falmouth forward Jacob Skillin-Lanou received a five-minute major for boarding less than seven minutes into the game.

Nearly two minutes later, defenseman Liam Turner put in a shot from the top of the slot.

With less than a minute left in Skillin-Lanou’s penalty, Colin Petit stole the puck and put in a shot from the right circle while both teams were skating short-handed.

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“We’ve been working on special teams and tonight it paid off,” Tremblay said. “We got a couple of nice plays. We were opportunistic tonight and cashed in on a couple of bounces that went our way.”

With less than three minutes left in the first period, Falmouth defenseman Nick Farnham scored an unassisted goal to make it 2-1.

The Yachtsmen (3-1-1) held a 36-18 edge in shots on goal, with all but eight coming during the final two periods.

“We put 45 shots up against St. Dom’s and lost 3-1,” Tremblay said. “We missed some bounces. We had 35 shots against Cheverus and lost 4-2. We talked about keep working, we’ll get a bounce and tonight we got a couple of bounces.

Time and again during the second period, speedy Falmouth forwards Theo Hembre and Marcus Cady cut in behind the Biddeford defense to go one-on-one against Larnerd, but the junior netminder stopped them every time.

“The key thing is to have a level head the entire game,” Larnerd said. “Not get too hyped up or too down. Just have a calm mindset and keep working hard.”

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With less than three minutes left in the second period, Tyler Laflamme put in a wide-angle shot from the right circle for a power-play goal and a 3-1 lead.

Seven minutes into the third, Colin Lavigne made it 4-1 when he put in a quick shot from the slot.

With less than three minutes left in the game, Falmouth forward Louis Mainella stuffed in power-play goal to complete the scoring.

“We were short-handed tonight, down three or four guys,” Tremblay said. “It hurts not having guys who are key people, so we shrunk down to two (forward) lines and had some guys play defense who usually don’t play defense. It was a lot of heart by the boys and it was a good team win.”

“I think the takeaway from this is we’ve got to bear down more when we get our chances,” Barton said.


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