AUBURN — On a night of rascally rebounds and devious deflections, Leavitt needed only one more bizarre bounce to cap an improbable boys’ hockey comeback Saturday night.

The puck ceased its generosity in the final two minutes of regulation, however. The Hornets’ best bid sailed over the shoulder of Gardiner goalie Brad Moore, cleared the crossbar by a foot and fell harmlessly to the boards.

Gardiner then won a face-off, deposited an empty-net goal with precisely a minute remaining and skated away with a wild 8-6 Western Class B triumph at Ingersoll Arena.

“They outworked us except for the third period,” Leavitt coach Dave Boucher.

Starting late in the second stanza, goals by Clay Rowland, Adam Poulin, Korey Mulherin and Tyler Hutchinson transformed a 6-2 canyon into a 7-6 crack for the Hornets.

But Bryant Whitley squeezed in his second goal of the night to interrupt that sequence for Gardiner (4-4) and maintain elbow room.

Alex Nadeau notched the empty-netter.

Even more titanic for the Tigers was junior Hunter Belanger’s natural hat trick in a 3-minute, 39-second span of the second period.

The only hint of the unique accomplishment was a slightly louder ovation than usual from the Gardiner hockey faithful.

Pro and college tradition, of course, would dictate a shower of spectator headgear onto the ice. That’s not accepted form in high school, but you can bet Belanger would have packed away every chapeau if it were.

“Those were the first goals of my high school career,” he said.

Brooms would have been just as appropriate as hats. Belanger picked up his second and third goals of the second period by way of rebounds.

Matt Ferris brushed in another in the same fashion, making it four straight Gardiner goals in frustrating fashion for the Hornets.

“We made a lot of mental mistakes tonight. We made a lot of bad choices with the puck,” Boucher said. “We gave up two rebound goals in the second period with nobody covering.”

Gardiner made junior goalie Nick Allen — in his first year playing the position — pay for the defense’s inability to clean up.

“Coach has just been telling me to keep crashing the net and I would get rebounds,” Belanger said. “It was right place, right time. I’ve had all kinds of open nets before and missed.”

Rowland’s goal gave Leavitt life prior to the end of the period. Poulin’s came on a penalty shot.

Hutchinson’s was a 6-on-4 strike with 2:30 left after Gardiner was whistled for a two-minute minor and Boucher elected to pull Allen.

Allen made 19 saves to keep Leavitt (4-3) within reach of Gardiner, which had lost four of its previous five.

Three of Leavitt’s wins had come against Class A cooperative teams.

“Some of those games were good for our confidence, but not for keeping us sharp,” Boucher said. “We spent a lot of time in our offensive zone and didn’t have to play two-way hockey. We’re a better team than we showed tonight for certain.”

Connor Violette and Ian Durgin scored early for Leavitt, which entered the night in fourth place and just ahead of Gardiner in the Western B Heal Points. Five teams will make the playoffs.

Josh Moore and Matt Farris had goals for Gardiner.

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