BIDDEFORD — For the first few minutes Saturday afternoon, the Kennebunk boys hockey team looked well on its way to an easy win over Leavitt.

But instead of pressing their advantage into a blowout, the Rams proceeded to turn into what head coach Sean Smith afterwards called “ a sloppy mess.”

After putting the Hornets on the back foot immediately by scoring twice in the opening 3:25, Kennebunk took its foot off the gas and very nearly let a Leavitt side that didn’t go away all the way back in before holding on for a 2-1 victory in a Class B game at Harold Alfond Forum.

For a Rams (3-0) team that only three days before had shown just how good it could be by soundly beating defending state champions Greely 5-1, it was a disappointing display against a Leavitt (1-2) squad that had lost its previous game to Camden Hills 12-1.

“Cleary we didn’t have our best stuff this afternoon,” Smith said. “I felt it before the game, they’re heads weren’t there, our mindset wasn’t there and I think we took them a little lightly.

“Obviously we need to take on every opponent like they’re the defending state champs. I’m not making any excuses, our team’s going to accountable because we’re definitely capable of much more than we showed on the ice.”

Ryan Keefe, a senior captain, agreed.

“It was an ugly game ”“ you play badly and you win, it’s not great,” Keefe said. “It’s hard to be as happy as after a win like that because we’re frustrated with the way we played.”

Keefe had gotten the game started off perfectly for the Rams, deflecting Miles Eaton’s shot from the point past Hornets goalie Ashton Dozois just 1:25 in.

Exactly two minutes later it was 2-0, when another shot from the blue line off the stick of Jack Graydon slipped through Dozois and was pounced on by Brandon Merchant.

“Our game plan is get it on net, get a rebound and finish, which is what you saw in the first two goals,” Keefe said. “But after that we just weren’t getting enough on the pads. We took plenty of shots, they just weren’t hitting the net.”

Kennebunk went on to outshoot Leavitt 11-1 in the first, but three penalties in a seven-minute span killed any momentum in a second period that was devoid of any solid chances until there were 50 seconds left when Leavitt was caught trying to make a quick line change.

Merchant leaked out and was found with a long pass by Eaton, but in on the breakaway Merchant slid a shot off the right post and it remained 2-0.

Leavitt’s persistence paid off, however, just 41 seconds into the third with a goal that looked very much like Kennebunk’s opener as Shuler Lamothe’s shot from the point was tipped by Garrett Morin and past goalie Michael LeBlanc.

That had the Hornets buzzing, and two Rams penalties in quick succession gave them a chance to equalize. But Kennebunk survived the penalty kills and didn’t allow a shot on LeBlanc over the final seven minutes to hang for the one-goal win.

“That certainly doesn’t help us,” Smith said of the penalties, of which his team had six in all. “I’m OK with hard working penalties when they prohibit a goal, but I thought some of those were a little selfish and just lazy.”

Still, as Keefe puts it, “a win’s a win,” and the Rams will have a chance to play themselves back into form on Tuesday when they host Portland/Deering at 6 p.m.

“It’s all the same on paper, and we’re sitting at 3-0,” Smith said. “We left here with a win and we’ve got to forget about it and go from there.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].