Boys hockey: Edward Little passes stiff test by Greely

AUBURN — The Edward Little boys hockey team passed another test Wednesday.

The Red Eddies remained undefeated with a 2-1 win over Class B power Greely at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

Edward Little, which is No. 1 in the Class A Heal standings and the Varsity Maine boys hockey poll, improves to 10-0, while the Rangers drop to 6-2 on the season.

“I knew they were going to be a test tonight; that’s what I told the boys yesterday after practice,” Edward Little coach Norm Gagne said. “I told them, ‘We are going to be in for a fight.'”

Goalie Gage Ducharme stopped 16 shots in the win. He said the Red Eddies understood they were facing one of the top teams in the state.

“We knew Greely was No. 1 in Class B (South), so we knew it was going to be tough for us,” Ducharme said. “Class B doesn’t mean anything; there are good Class B schools, too. We knew coming in it was going to be tough.”

Greely coach Barry Mothes said he used Wednesday’s game to get an idea of exactly where his team is at.

“It was a great midseason game for us,” Mothes said. “We were looking forward to coming up here and we know they are playing very well this year. … We were planning on coming in here and trying to get a win. I thought we did a lot of things well tonight against a formidable opponent. Normally our power-play success rate is fairly high, and it’s been a difference in some games, but tonight that was not the case.”

The Rangers went 0-for-4 on power plays, while the Red Eddies were 0-for-3.

Edward Little’s Campbell Cassidy thought he scored the first goal of the game just past the five-minute mark of the first period, but the net got knocked off its moorings before the puck went in the net.

The goal that was waived off, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

“We had so many opportunities in their end and around the net,” Gagne said. “We didn’t have the composure to put it away. We missed a lot of golden opportunities.”

The game remained scoreless through one period.

The Red Eddies broke through just past the nine-minute mark of the second period. Tate Morse deflected a point shot from the blue line to put Edward Little ahead 1-0.

Then Andrew Clements fired the puck past Rangers goalie Spencer Osgood for a 2-0 lead. Wesley Clements had the assist.

“I was very proud of Andrew, he took the place of the guy coming out of the box, and to do what he did, it was a great, great play,” Gagne said.

After Osgood survived pressure by the Red Eddies early in the third period, Greely forward Evan Dutil skated into the offensive zone and his wrist shot from the right circle beat Ducharme to get the Rangers on the board at the 8:21 mark of the third period.

“That was a classic goal of his: Get some speed on the wing and hitting a good open spot,” Mothes said. “I thought in the 45 minutes, he had a few more chances like that. EL is a physical and good skating team and makes it hard to get a lot of odd-man rushes.”

The Rangers pulled their goalie in the final two minutes, but Ducharme trusted his Edward Little teammates to help him out.

“I wasn’t worried at all because I knew the boys would pack it in (defensively) and get (the puck) out when they need to,” Ducharme said. “They make it easy for me.”

Osgood made 21 saves in the loss.