After having to play from behind early in recent outings, the Portland/South Portland/Deering/Waynflete Beacons turned the tables and didn’t waste any time taking control Thursday in a boys’ hockey contest against Scarborough at Troubh Ice Arena.
The result was a decisive victory.
The Beacons opened the scoring in the first minute, held a 3-0 lead after one period and went on to a 7-3 victory, with senior Toby Lappin leading the way with four goals.
“A fast start was really important for us,” said Lappin. “The last couple of games, we’ve gotten off to slow starts and had to dig ourselves out the whole game, and it’s been a struggle.”
Just 36 seconds into the game, Lappin pounced on a loose puck, skated into the offensive zone and beat Scarborough goalie Bryce Bellerose (nine saves) with a shot to the far corner.
“It’s nice to finally score first,” said Joe Robinson, who co-coaches the Beacons along with Jeff Beaney. “The last five or six games, we were always trailing off the back, so it was good to just jump out like that.”
The Red Storm (2-10-1) had chances to answer on a power play, but Beacons goalie Michael Zaccaria (23 saves) denied Tyler Kenney and Olin Pederson before turning aside a shot from Wyatt Grondin and a rebound bid from Nick Harmon.
At 7:48, Lappin doubled the Beacons’ lead after getting the puck from Henry Cossaboom in transition.
After killing off another Scarborough power play, the Beacons (8-6) went up by three, as Ben Palson scored out of a scrum in front of the goal at 12:26.
Lappin completed his hat trick at 1:41 of the second period, assisted by Hewitt Sykes and Palson on a power play.
The Red Storm threatened to get back into the game when Pederson converted at 3:01 after a pass from Quinn Staples. But the Beacons restored their four-goal lead at 7:04 when Parker Sipos set up Lucas Milliken on a rush.
Late in the second period, Scarborough cut the deficit to 5-2 when Tyler Kenney scored on a power play, firing the puck off Zaccaria and into the net. Just two minutes into the third period, however Danny Fitzgibbon beat Scarborough’s backup goalie, Reed Marston (seven saves).
The Red Storm got another power-play goal from Kenney at 10:16. Lappin then capped his memorable afternoon with an empty-net goal with 1:24 remaining.
“It’s great to score, but I had the boys behind me the whole time,” Lappin said.
Scarborough finished with a 26-23 edge in shots, but the team’s habit of falling behind early proved costly again.
“We seem to find ourselves behind early in games and we work hard and play hard, but we just can’t overcome the deficit,” said Red Storm Coach Eric Wirsing. “Unfortunately, it’s just the cycle we’ve had this season.”
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