AUBURN – It seemed pretty ironic that it was a power play goal that enabled the Edward Little hockey team to force overtime late in regulation Saturday.

That’s because the Red Eddies spent much of the evening killing off penalties. EL, however, managed enough time outside of the penalty box to produce a rally and 6-5 overtime win over Thornton Academy.

“We had to dig deep,” said EL coach Craig Latuscha. “We had to fight adversity. Penalties killed us. We played five-on-three or five-on-four for almost the entire game.”

Shawn Hird scored the game-winner just 1:52 into overtime to lift EL to its second consecutive win in the extra session. After a two-on-one rush failed for EL, the puck came back around to Hird at the left circle. He buried it for his second of the night.

“I was just going down and saw their defenseman screening the goalie,” said Hird. “I just tried to get it on net.”

Thornton scored three goals on the power play on 12 attempts. The Trojans built a 4-1 lead, but watched EL (6-3-1) rally to tie. Thornton’s third power play goal with 1:56 left appeared to be enough to secure the win. Jake Arenstam’s blast from the left point gave Thornton the 5-4 lead, but just after the goal, the Trojans gave EL a power play when Travis Dion earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

EL took full advantage and stormed the Trojan net. Corey LaRue tied it with 1:11 left for his third goal of the night.

“We’ve been doing really well this year focusing on playing as a team,” said Hird. “When Corey LaRue scored that goal to get us there, it was good teamwork.”

Thornton struck first just 4:10 into the game on a Seamus Kerry goal, but EL answered at 4:58 with a Chris Carver goal.

The Trojans scored twice on the power play late in the period to build a 3-1 lead. Zach Champagne scored with 8:21 left, and Peter Remmes scored with 39 seconds remaining in the period on a five-on-three. Thornton had four five-on-three advantages in the game.

Remmes made it 4-1 early in the second, but EL began to rally late in the period. LaRue scored on a two-on-one with 6:13 left. Then Hird wristed one home with 5:00 left to get EL within one.

EL returned to its undisciplined ways and gave Thornton more opportunities on the power play, but the Trojans couldn’t cash in.

“The penalty kill did help us out a lot,” said Latuscha.

LaRue made it 4-4 on an EL power play at 2:31 of the third.

“If we’re going to be a good team, we have to fight adversity and we’ve got to pull them off,” said Latuscha. “Good teams find ways to win. Hopefully, we can keep this up.”

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