AUBURN — It was a night to remember, even before the puck was dropped Saturday.

The girls’ hockey team from Leavitt-Edward Little opened its season with a 5-0 win over the combined team from Cape Elizabeth-Waynflete.

The Red Hornets produced a fine effort to celebrate their opener at the Norway Savings Bank Arena.

“We’ve had some great practices,” Leavitt-EL coach Shon Collins said. “We had seen a lot of good things. With nine freshmen coming in this year, a lot of them had hockey experience and you could see it out there.”

The Red Hornets were celebrating the first varsity game in their new arena and also honored senior forward Taylor Landry prior to the game. A banner was unfurled on the wall of the arena. It recognized her reaching the 100-goal plateau last year.

“It was exciting,” Landry said. “I was excited for this game. It’s an accomplishment. It felt good.”

Landry had a pair of goals against Capefleet. Emma Martineau had a goal and an assist while Danica Nadeau and Hayley Frohlich added goals as well. Angel Drouin had a pair of assists.

“The benefit we have this year is that we have the group of freshmen and teams can no longer say we can take Taylor away,” Collins said. “There’s more people they have to worry about.”

Goalie Tori Sanford had five saves in the shutout as the Red Hornets outshot Capefleet 26-5.

“We played really well together,” said Martineau, a sophomore forward. “We played like a team. We had a lot of good passing and stuff.”

If the Red Hornets were a bit anxious to start the season, it didn’t show. Martineau scored in the first minute of the game. She was staked out in the slot and put back a rebound for the goal.  Drouin and Amanda Grenier had the assists.

“Coach told us to come out hard at the beginning of the game,” Martineau said. “So it was nice to get a lead early.”

 The Red Hornets controlled play for most of the first. Capefleet didn’t get its first shot until 2:34 remained. Leavitt-EL did a nice job controlling the puck and moving it.

“We talked with them before the game about being responsible with the puck and doing the little things,” Collins said. “I thought we really did well with that.”

Though the Red Hornets had plenty of chances to add to the lead in the first, the team had to be patient. They plugged away and knew the finishing would come.

“I felt like we were doing pretty good,” Martineau said. “We just had to keep up the intensity and not let it slip back down.”

Capefleet had a chance early in the second on a Kathryn Clark shorthanded breakaway but her shot went wide with 7:14 left in the period.

Then a minute later, Landry netted her first, redirecting a centering pass in front with 6:09 left. Martineau and Abby Roy had the assists on the goal.

“It was a pass from the corner,” Landry said. “I did a backhand through the five hole.”

Then with 2:28 left in the period, Nadeau scored her goal. She had a nice rush up ice and broke in alone for a backhander and 3-0 lead.

The Red Hornets outshot Capefleet 9-1 in the second.

In the third, Frohlich scored her goal at 3:14. Mariah Vaillancourt and Drouin had the assists. Then with 9:24 left, Landry scored her second, firing a wrister from the left circle. Ally MacKenzie had the assist.

“I looked up and saw the open corner and just shot it,” Landry said.

kmills@sunjournal.com

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