KENTS HILL – Maranacook had two wins against Western Class B opponents prior to Monday night’s home tilt against Leavitt, and both of those teams have since dropped out of the MPA due to low numbers.
Other than that, it was 0-for-8 and playoff hopes were quickly fading.
“We’ve been trying to think positive all year,” said Maranacook coach Rick Sirois. “We’ve been down in every game. We always think we can win a game, even if we’re down by three.”
There was no need for that way of thinking Monday.
Kyle O’Connor stopped 37 of the 40 shots and Willy Herman had a goal and three assists to lead the Black Bears to a 5-3 upset win over the Hornets at Kents Hill’s Alfond Arena.
Tom Martinelli added two goals from the point and Dustin Ouellette had a goal and two assists for Maranacook.
“That line (Herman, Ouellette and Matt Brennan, who also had a goal and an assist) has packed the scoring punch all year,” said Sirois. “This is really the first time they’ve been able to put points on the board, though, which is a good sign that they are starting to click.”
Martinelli added to the attack with his blasts from the point.
“When he puts his shots on net they are hard to stop,” said Sirois. “We hadn’t used the point well all season, and tonight they were picking their heads up and looking around a bit more.”
For Leavitt, the loss was disappointing, considering a big win last Thursday against Win-Dale had given the Hornets a good chance to move up in the standings for playoff positioning.
“We were sluggish in the first period,” said Leavitt coach Fern Racine. “We came back and got the kids back into the game, but his goalie played outstanding. Plus, we had a lot of blocked shots and were shooting at pads all night.”
Nothing seemed to go Leavitt’s way from the outset. Despite outshooting Maranacook 7-0 in the first seven minutes, the Hornets had nothing to show for their efforts. On the Black Bears’ first shot on net, Ouellette snuck a snap shot past Leavitt netminder Kenny Gauthier low on the glove side.
The shots evened out as the period came to a close, and Martinelli’s first goal of the game put the Black Bears ahead 2-0.
In the second, penalties and sloppy neutral-zone play drove the dagger a bit deeper. Brennan capped a Maranacook power play with a goal at 1:14 to up the lead to 3-0, and Martinelli fired a shot past Gauthier at 10:15 as another penalty ended at 10:15.
“You can say all you want that the refereeing was terrible,” said Racine. “This was terrible.”
Leavitt tried to mount a comeback after Kurt Knight knocked the puck past O’Connor with 48 seconds to play in the second period. In the third, after Herman seemingly put the game out of reach, Corey Maillet and Knight pulled Leavitt to within two, but just one minute remained.
“In the third, our defense needed to tighten up, and it did,” said Racine. “We just never got the bounces tonight.”
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