AUBURN — The way the two goalies were playing, it was probably going to take a snipe of a shot for a goal to be scored in Wednesday’s girls hockey rivalry showdown between Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland and St. Dom’s/Winthrop/Gray-New Gloucester.

Red Hornets senior defender Cassady Bussiere provided such a shot to give Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland a 1-0 victory at Norway Savings Bank Arena. 

Saints (11-5) goalie Mady Boulet stopped the first six shots she faced, but Bussiere took a shot from inside the blue line on a rush and beat Boulet into the top-right corner of the goal about nine minutes into the first period. 

“Cass, I thought, shot it at the perfect time, and she had the goalie kind of moving one way and I thought caught her a little bit,” Red Hornets coach Dana Berube said. “But it was a good shot and we’ll take it.” 

Saints coach Paul Gosselin said he thought Bussiere’s goal, paired with two first-period penalties against his team, created a “momentum shift” in favor of the Red Hornets, who outshot their rivals 7-5 in the opening frame. 

“It took us a little bit of time to get our legs back,” Gosselin said. “We started building on it second period, getting some more shots in, got some pressure, and obviously continued into the third. I think we had a lot of pressure in the third period, just couldn’t bury it.” 

Red Hornets (7-5-3) goalie Manny Guimond made 18 saves for the shutout, including stopping Bella Webster twice late in the second and denying Madi Pelletier and Emma Roy early in the third. 

“We were expecting that big push at the start of the third, which we got, but we weathered the storm and created some opportunities for ourselves there, and stayed disciplined, didn’t have too many penalties, and that’s what it’s going to take to beat those good teams,” Berube said. 

Boulet also made 18 saves, including two high saves of shots by Bussiere and Caroline Tracey in the second period. She also stopped a wide-open Tracey chance one minute into the third. But it wasn’t enough the way Guimond played for the Red Hornets. 

“Ironically enough, I was telling one of the coaches beginning of the game, ‘Anybody can win with a hot goalie,’ and knowing we had to face her, and I think I jinxed myself,” Gosselin said. “I think Manny’s always been a good goalie, and she’s always played us hard. It was no different tonight. And we’ve got to come to play hard. Unfortunately for us, I don’t think we played hard until probably the third period, got a little bit desperate and we just couldn’t put one in.” 

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