The Cheverus/Old Orchard Beach/Kennebunk/Windham girls’ hockey team lost two of its final three regular-season games, but whatever plagued the team at the end of the regular season hasn’t carried over to the playoffs.
On Wednesday at Troubh Ice Arena, Cheverus dominated the Gorham co-op team, rolling to a 8-1 win to take the South regional crown and advance to the state championship game for the first time since winning the title in 2019.
“We got healthy. We played the last eight, nine games (of the regular season) without (goalie) Ella Lemieux and (defenseman) Lily Johnson, and those are players you just don’t replace. It’s a long season. For a team to not have a bad spot is impossible,” said Cheverus Coach Scott Rousseau.
Lucy Johnson led the offensive outburst with four goals and two assists for top-seeded Cheverus.
The Stag (17-3) will face Yarmouth/Freeport (17-2-1) in the state championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday, back at Troubh Ice Arena.
Gorham, the No. 2 seed, ends the season at 13-7. This was the first regional final appearance for the Rams.
“We knew what to expect, but it kind of snowballed on us,” said Gorham Coach Mary Vaughn. “We’ve never made it here before. We’ve never even made it close to here before. I think it says a lot about the heart and determination of our team.”
Cheverus scored twice in the first five minutes. Brynn McKenney took a pass from Johnson, from the bottom of the circle to the top, and fired a shot over the blocker of Gorham goalie Elizabeth Keil just 2:26 into the game. Barely a minute and a half later, at 4:06, Elle Cooney scored off a feed from Maddie Doherty to give the Stags a 2-0 lead.
“Once we started getting into the game, everything kept elevating. We kept getting focused and didn’t get ahead of ourselves,” Lucy Johnson said.
The Rams cut their deficit in half at 10:48 when Kayla Clapp split a pair of Cheverus defenders on a breakaway and scored with a shot over the glove of Lemieux.
That was as close as Gorham would get. Cheverus scored four goals in the second period, including an unassisted short-handed goal from Johnson.
“Gorham scores on that power play, it’s 4-2 and we have a game again,” Rousseau said.
Johnson picked up the hat trick at 9:24 of the third and added her fourth goal in the final minute.
Keil made 23 saves for the Rams, while Lemieux stopped 17 shots for Cheverus.
“Me and Mikayla (Talbot), my teammate, had great pressure the entire time we were on the penalty kill. The things we worked on in practice, we put in the game and really executed really well,” Johnson said.
Talbot had a goal and three assists. Doherty and Cooney each added a goal and an assist.
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