The forward’s three goals gives Win-Dale a 4-3 victory.
AUBURN – In 45 minutes of hockey, 12 seconds made all the difference.
Win-Dale’s Nate Frechette scored a pair of power-play goals in that span and added an insurance goal to power the Ice Dogs to a 4-2 win over Leavitt in Class B hockey action at Ingersoll Arena Wednesday night.
It was the season-opener for both teams as snow canceled last weekend’s action.
The Hornets held a 1-0 lead after the first period as Joe Legee scored with a minute and a half remaining in the frame. Gabe Cloutier and Nick Bourgoin were credited with assists as Legee stood just in front of the net on the right side and put the puck past Win-Dale netminder Brandon Ellis.
The lead was short-lived.
Fifteen seconds into the second period, and with a Hornet already in the penalty box, an elbowing call gave Win-Dale a 5-on-3 advantage, and the Ice Dogs capitalized on the opportunity.
At the 56-second mark, Frechette took the pass from Sam Frost to knot the game at 1-1.
At 1:08, he put his team in front for good.
“On that first goal, Sammy shot it and I crashed the net,” said Frechette. “On the second goal, Sammy set a pick right out front and the “D” kind of went to him and I walked in. The goalie was down and Sammy did a great job screening him.”
Frost was involved a lot. He scored the third goal for Win-Dale and assisted on all the others. At the 9:01 mark of the second period, Frost took the crossing pass from Adam Beal and beat Leavitt goalie Kenny Gauthier to the right side for a power-play goal.
“We had a bad first period,” said Frost.
“But we came out strong over the last two.”
Leavitt did close the margin to 3-2 midway through the third period when Bourgoin broke in alone from the blue line.
Frechette closed out the scoring 25 seconds later when Frost, deep in his own zone, found him breaking free near the red line and hit him in stride.
He beat Gauthier to the right side.
“We told them it wasn’t a bad start,” said Win-Dale coach Dave St. Hilaire. “We knew we had a power play (to start the second period) and we put our five top players out there and bang-bang we got a couple of quick goals.”
Not to be overlooked was the 29-save performance of Ellis.
“We told him he had to come out focused today,” said St. Hilaire. “This was the quickest we have seen him.”
Gauthier stopped 14 shots for Leavitt.
“The tables turned because we were in the penalty box,” said Leavitt coach Fern Racine.
“I told my guys they need to stay out of the penalty box. Five against five we do alright. Down one man we struggle, down two and it hurts.”
pmullen@sunjournal.com
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