Twice the Eagles countered a Gardiner goal with a score of their own less than a minute later. Once, in the second period, the hosts scored twice in a minute and cut the deficit to one goal. But the Tigers just kept coming.

Doomed by penalties and unable to stop the offensive onslaught, the Eagles ultimately fell, 8-3.

“Gardiner’s a real good team,” Eagles assistant John Firczak said. “They were real good in the neutral zone, as well as on the power play. We got some soft calls and they capitalized on chances.”

The Eagles’ (4-7) penalty troubles started in the second period, when three Gardiner (6-2) goals were already on the board. Up 3-1, a tripping penalty gave the Tigers a man-advantage, and it took Connor Manter a mere 27 seconds to make the Eagles pay. Then, later in the period, Tristan Hebert scored 45 seconds after a holding penalty to make the score 5-3.

“They’re quick and they pass the puck well,” Lisbon sophomore Noah Austin said of Gardiner. “They move the puck well, so you want to put pressure on one guy, and he just passed to the next guy. We needed to have a high-guy because we were out of position too low and they break the puck out three-on-two every time, guy in the slot was wide open.”

“We kind of did a little bit of running around in our zone,” Firczak said. “We just couldn’t pick up their breakout.”

Hebert scored again just 13 seconds into the third period and the Tigers were hungry for more. Back-to-back penalties at 5:26 and 6:22 gave Gardiner a 5-on-3 chance that Eagles’ goalie Cade Charron (29 saves) narrowly survived. Then, 20 seconds before the fifth skater was set to return, Hebert finished off his hat trick and made the score 7-3.

Cam Bigelow rounded out the scoring during a five-minute major with under five minutes to play.

“Just keeping our gameplan when we’re out on the penalty kill,” Firczak said of the power-play troubles. “Staying in the box, a lot of stops, a lot of starts and not curling. When you curl, you get out of position, and then it gives them a scoring chance.”

Gardiner fired 37 shots on Charron’s net and converted 4-of-8 power-play chances.

Eagles claw back

Jason Magno gave the Eagles a glimpse of light early in the second period, when he took a pass from senior captain Cam Alexander and finished to make the score 3-1 2:51 into the frame. It came 44 seconds after Gardiner’s Joe Clark slid right on the outside and fired a high slap shot into the upper left corner off a dish from Connor Manter.

Then, at 11:57, the Eagles took advantage of a power-play chance when Austin swiftly skated across the net and put it past Gardiner’s Michael Poirer (14 saves) to make it 4-2. Less than a minute later, Lisbon senior Tyler Halls leaped up into the boards after scoring again and it was 4-3.

That scoreline lasted all of 58 seconds before Gardiner scored its second power-play goal. The 19 total minutes in the penalty box were too much to overcome.

“We’ve just got to play smarter,” Austin said. “Some of the penalties were lazy penalties, like hooking and tripping, and we can’t have that. Some of the penalties could go either way. We could have had a penalty here or there, which could have changed the game, but after they got up by a couple we tried to keep going and they just put us away.”

The hosts fired seven shots in the third period but managed just seven total in the first and second. It was the type of night the Eagles would like to forget quickly, and, fortunately for them, that’s exactly what they’ll need to do. A rematch with “Battle of the Bridge” rival Brunswick is slated for Saturday at 8:15 p.m.

“Tomorrow’s a new day,” Firczak said. “We’re going to regroup, we’re going to practice and we’re going to go get Brunswick.”

“We just got to keep our heads and get back into tomorrow,” Austin said. “Move the puck well against Brunswick and we should play well.”