AUBURN — Caroline Tracey scored a hat trick and Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland had to kill off plenty of penalties for a 3-0 victory over Mt. Ararat/Lisbon in a North region girls hockey quarterfinal Wednesday night at Norway Savings Bank Arena. 

“(Caroline) is our quiet leader. She’s got a ‘C’ on her jersey for a reason, and she does it by example,” Red Hornets coach Dana Berube said. “It was great to see her get the hat trick.” 

The third-seeded Red Hornets (10-6-3) went to the box for the first of seven times just 29 seconds into the game, and in killing off that penalty Tracey missed just wide on a shorthanded shot. She later scored a shorthanded goal. 

“You don’t want to be a man down, but it kind of gave Caroline a little bit of room to find some openings, and she took advantage of the ones that were there,” Berube said. 

The junior captain’s first goal came just under nine minutes into the first, taking advantage of a loose puck in the neutral zone before skating around a defender and shooting over Eagles goalie Greta Marchildon. 

“That was really big because all the players were stressed, and I think that gave us the adrenaline to pick it up and ‘We got this,'” Tracey said. 

Sixth-seeded Eagles (10-8-1) coach Jeremy Saxton said his team came out with “great energy” before Tracey took momentum away and gave it to the Red Hornets. 

Tracey’s shorthanded goal came on the Eagles’ third power play of the game. Saxton used his timeout prior to the start of the power play, and his team nearly scored off the initial faceoff, but the Eagles couldn’t connect to Hannah Hawkes for the backdoor shot. 

Tracey scored 32 seconds later with a rip from the left circle. Caroline Audette assisted. 

Those two hooked up again 11:11 into the period. Megan Lachance fed the puck around the boards to Audette behind the net and Audette flipped it out front, and Tracey was there to slide a shot past Marchildon. The goal came after the Red Hornets had to fend off an Eagles 5-on-3 opportunity. 

“It felt amazing (to score a hat trick),” Tracey said. “My teammates made it really easy, though, because they gave me really good passes.” 

The Red Hornets killed off the last of their seven penalties late in the third. Senior goalie Manny Guimond denied Alex Durant from close range, and before that Ema Hawkes and Maddie Young both had chances squandered. 

Berube said “your goalie’s got to be your best player,” and Guimond made 12 of her 19 saves with her team a man down. 

Marchildon made 12 saves for the Eagles, who were playing in their first playoff game after winning a record 10 games. 

“I’m proud of our girls, they played well and they accomplished a lot this season,” Saxton said. 

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