AUBURN — Wesley Clements is called upon when he’s needed, and the sophomore forward came through for Edward Little in big situations Wednesday. 

Clements scored a shorthanded goal during a long penalty kill and, more importantly, scored the game-winner in overtime for the Red Eddies in a 3-2 boys hockey victory over Falmouth at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

Edward Little (8-10) closes out the regular season with seven consecutive wins.

The shorthanded goal in the second period nearly stood as the game-winner, but Aaron Higgins scored a 6-on-5 goal for the Yachtsmen (7-10-1) with 13.7 seconds left to send the game to overtime.

Falmouth had the momentum, and the puck in its offensive end, when Clements collected a loose puck and headed the other way with it for a breakaway that led to the game-winner. 

“I saw the puck and I saw the (defender). (I skated around him), then I made a move on the goalie,” Clements said. “I was thinking that, ‘This is the game-winner,’ and it went real quick in my head. I was like, ‘I have to score this.’ 

“Honestly, I didn’t know what I was going to do, but it kind of just comes to me as I see the goalie. Pull the backhand. That’s the same move I did on him the first time, so I assumed it worked.” 

The winning goal came with 4:16 left in overtime, and a couple minutes after Mitchell Ham’s mini breakaway was stopped by Red Eddies (8-10) goalie Gage Ducharme. 

“Listen, it’s overtime hockey, right?” Falmouth coach Deron Barton said. “Before that we had a swing, they had a turnover at their blue line, we came in, we didn’t capitalize, they did. Those are overtime plays. Those are what make and break the results, and we ended up on the losing end.” 

The Red Eddies were on the losing end of a lot of games (10 in a row, to be exact), when head coach Norm Gagne had a talk with Clements about his role on the team. 

“He doesn’t even play on a regular line. We filter him through. Penalty kill, power play, wherever we want to put him we can put him,” Gagne said. “He should be on a line, but I told him … I said, ‘Look, I want to use you, and you’re going to play. I don’t want you to think I don’t think you should be on a line, but I can use you anywhere.'” 

The game was tied 1-1 after the first. Kegan Rodrigue scored first for Edward Little on a power play, and Falmouth’s Owen Drummey answered off a Xavier Grenier assist.

The Yachtsmen were in the midst of various man-advantages (first 4-on-3, then 5-on-3, and finally 5-on-4) when Clements scored to give the Red Eddies a 2-1 lead 8:05 into the second period. Logan Alexander — who Gagne said is “playing relentless hockey” at this point in the season — picked up his second assist of the game on the play. 

“When you look back over the whole game, the 5-on-3 was huge,” Gagne said. “We had guys laying it out, blocking shots — things that you have to do in playoffs, and we did that tonight. They could have drilled us right then.” 

Clements credited Ducharme with making big saves on the penalty kill. He had four in the sequence, 11 in the second period, and 22 for the game. 

One shot that eluded him was Higgins’, which came from a tough angle with time winding down in regulation. 

“The hockey gods have a magical way of a puck finding its way in without any real rhyme or reason,” Barton said. “Just put it on net and anything can happen.” 

Sam Kidder made 21 saves for Falmouth.