Tyler Gaulin scored on a pass from Isaiah Fox with eight seconds left to lift the Maine Nordiques past the Northeast Generals, 3-2, Tuesday afternoon at Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.

“It was a lot of fun to be a part of,” Nordiques coach Nolan Howe said. “I thought our team was in control throughout the game, and it was one of our most complete performances of the season, so it was nice to come out with a win.”

Gaulin’s game-winner finished off a trend in the game where a goal was scored in the final minute of each period.

Makem Demers scored on the power play from Stefan Owens with 11 seconds remaining in the first to stake the Nordiques to a 1-0 lead. Jonathan Young scored with an assist from Alexander Tertyshny with 43 ticks left in the second to tie the game 1-1.

The Generals kept that momentum going into the third, with Dylan Schuett giving Northeast its first lead 1:20 into the frame. Aidan Curran and Liam McCanney assisted.

“Goals at the beginning or late in periods, they certainly can be deflating, but we’ve got a mature, veteran group, and so we felt like we were in control, and we knew the way we needed to play in order to have success,” Howe said. “It’s those tight, hard-fought games that help your team get better. We aren’t averse to a challenge, and I thought we answered the bell in the third period.”

Owens tied the game back up for the Nordiques midway through the period. Cannon Green and James Philpott assisted on the power-play goal. The Nordiques were 2-for-4 on the man-advantage, while Northeast was scoreless across its two chances.

The final goal was the result of a little motivation from Howe.

“I challenged a few guys over the weekend to execute things better and those guys happened to be the ones on the ice, and they did it perfect and it worked,” Howe said. “I think it started with Filip Lofdahl creating the pressure, creating the turnover, and then obviously Isaiah Fox makes the pass to Tyler Gaulin, and there’s a reason that those guys are amongst the league leaders in scoring. But at the end of the day, they played a complete, 200-foot game and ended up scoring a big goal off an O-zone faceoff loss. So just really proud of those young men.”

Tyriq Outen stopped 24 of 26 shots for Maine, and Anton Castro made 44 saves for Northeast.

The win was the third in four games for the Nordiques over the Generals in the past week. The final game of the five-game home set is Wednesday at noon at the Colisee.

“We want to end it on a high note here before we have some time there for holidays with our families,” Howe said. “Now it’s about being consistent. I think anybody can play good for a day, but when you can play the right way night in and night out, you’re going to give your team a chance to have success. So our challenge tomorrow is to bring the same positive attitudes, the same work ethic and the same team-first mentality. And I think if we do those we’ll put ourselves in a position to earn some success.”

« Previous

Saddleback opens slopes after 5-year closure

Next »

Lewiston’s Trever Irish healthy and happy after landing at Long Beach State