AUBURN – A good prequel draws you in, dangles the suspense and leaves you wanting more.

That’s what the 2-2 tie between the Leavitt and Greely hockey teams did Wednesday night.

The second- and third- ranked teams in Western B battled for three periods and overtime but had to settle for a stalemate. The two teams will meet again Feb. 16 for the last game of the regular season in Falmouth.

“They came through good tonight,” said Leavitt coach Ron Rouillard. “I was pleased with their effort. If we can continue to do that every game from now on, we should have a good playoff shot.”

It was a good tie for the third-ranked Hornets (7-6-1).

Rouillard pulled starting goalie Richard Thibault because of illness and substituted Cody Violette.

Violette made 38 saves as Greely outshot Leavitt 40-17.

“We had to battle through adversity,” said Rouillard. “I had to put in my No. 2 goalie because my No. 1 goalie was sick. I had some players on the bench that were sick. I wasn’t getting 100 percent out of the guys, but I think I was getting more out of them than I have in the past. They really worked hard. This was a game of adversity where you hang on because Greely’s a good club.”

The second-ranked Rangers (8-5-2) were coming off a 2-1 victory against top-ranked York. Coach Barry Mothes hoped his team would raise its intensity level for its second game in as many nights but was frustrated when his team had the majority of chances through the first two periods and had to come from behind in the third.

“We turned the puck over and made mistakes and unfortunately weren’t able to generate enough pressure to lead to more goals,” said Mothes. “It’s the second game in a row where we had two goals. Frankly, in my opinion, looking at the flow of play, we should have had five or six.”

Greely got the first goal with 4:03 left in the first. Charlie Hardwood finished off a pass from Tucker Geoffroy in the slot.

Leavitt got that back just 25 seconds into the second period. Steve Rouillard got his first of two on the night when he buried one from the right circle. He made it 2-1 with nine seconds left in the period.

He won the puck in the neutral zone, burst past a defender for a shot from the left circle.

Greely opened the final period with a quick strike of its own. Brian Allyn scored off a pass from the right wing.

“It was nice to get that goal early in the third and tie it up, but then we took two penalties back-to-back that put us a man down,” said Mothes.

Leavitt couldn’t score on its two power plays, despite a bid by Steve Rouillard that dinged the post.

In overtime, both teams had quality chances. Leavitt’s Scott Cloutier had a shot in front from the left side.

Cam Dumont had a crack at the rebound. Then Greely, which outshot Leavitt 10-2 in the overtime, had a backhander of a rebound by Geoffroy, a shot by Jesse Shavel off an Allyn pass and a try by Leland Copenhagen in the slot.

“It’s the old too little too late,” said Mothes. “If we had played the whole game the way we played that eight minutes, I think we would have had a good chance of winning that game.”