Kris Bennett makes 28 saves as Edward Little tops North Yarmouth Academy.
YARMOUTH – Each of the last three meetings between Edward Little and North Yarmouth Academy has been rough, both physically and emotionally. On Thursday, in the teams’ only regular-season meeting, the trend continued.
Matt Couturier and Colby Gilbert scored goals 17 seconds apart in the first period and Kyle Smith added another midway through the third to lead the Red Eddies to a 3-1 win over NYA in a rematch of last year’s state final, another game that was decidedly chippy.
“You know when you play NYA it’s going to be a physical game,” Edward Little coach Jamie Belleau said. “We had a bunch of tired kids out there after last night’s game against Lewiston, and we found a way to work through that and come out on top. We were fortunate to have a couple of breaks, and our goalie came up big for us when he had to.”
EL netminder Kris Bennett stopped 28 of 29 shots to earn the win, including several key saves early in the game, before EL got rolling.
“I saw a lot of rubber early in the game,” Bennet said. “I usually see a lot of pucks in the second period, and we usually dominate in the first. Tonight was kind of backwards.”
After weathering the early storm, Couturier put the Red eddies in the lead for good at 7:13 when he stole a pass between two NYA defensemen at his own blue line and skated the length of the ice alone. A left-handed shot, Couturier put the puck to the top right corner on NYA goaltender Kevin Santillo, just over his glove. Seventeen seconds later, Gilbert rifled a wrist shot from the high slot on a pass from Joel Pepin to give EL the 2-0 lead.
“We dominated the first half of the first period,” NYA coach Kent Hulst said. “We gave them chances that they capitalized on, but we didn’t quit from there. It’s not that we didn’t have our chances, because if we hadn’t played well we wouldn’t have had chances, but we played well.”
EL nearly added a third at 5:29 of the second period when Couturier appeared to score a goal on a Matt Nadeau rebound, but the officials had already blown the play dead. The puck was clearly visible from the stands, but one of the referees lost sight of the puck.
Eleven seconds into the third frame, Dan Bartlett stole the puck at the EL blue line and went in shorthanded on Bennett. All alone, Bartlett clanged the puck in off of the corner of the post and the crossbar to draw the Panthers within one.
“That was just a great shot,” Bennett said. “I stopped one on him almost the same exact thing in the state game last year. This time, he got his revenge.”
“He’s definitely one of the best players in the state,” Hulst said of Bartlett. “He doesn’t miss too many of those.”
Smith drove down the left boards, leaned in on Santillo and tucked the puck between the goaltender’s legs at 5:15 of the third to re-establish the two-goal cushion.
After the game, players from both teams could be seen hobbling, favoring legs while walking and nursing scratches and cuts on their bodies. For EL, the game was the second in a tough, three-game stretch. On Saturday, the Eddies will face St. Dom’s in Lewiston, while NYA plays against in-town rival Yarmouth on Friday.
jpelletier@sunjournal.com
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