Boys hockey: Falmouth squeaks by Edward Little

AUBURN — Rowen Hagerty took advantage of a screen in front of Edward Little goalie Camren Dufour in a game where chances were scarce.

Hagerty’s blast midway through the middle frame broke the scoreless deadlock to give Falmouth a 1-0 victory over the Red Eddies in a Class A boys hockey game at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Saturday night.

“One of my teammates set me up nice — they got the puck down deep and I came around and shot it,” Hagerty said. “There was a good screen from Henry Whiting. That was nice.”

Whiting had the lone assist.

“It’s unfortunate the goal they got, it was up by the blue line. I don’t know if Camren saw it or not, it went in,” Edward Little coach Norm Gagne said. “I said, ‘Pucks on net, anything can go in.’ We just seemed we couldn’t get a handle on some of those rebounds.”

The Navigators (2-1) scored six goals total in their first two games, and Hagerty didn’t expect Saturday’s game to be low-scoring.

“No, definitely not, but luckily our goalie, Brandon White, he stopped everything, a brick wall back there,” Haggerty said. “It was a good shutout from him.”

White had 14 saves for the shutout and Dufour had 17 in the loss.

Both teams got hit hard by graduation and have less experienced rosters this season.

“Young, nervous, anxious, hot potato with the puck, missing checks, missing system execution, all that,” Falmouth coach Deron Barton said. “I am happy with what I have, and we are making progress every game. We are doing that — by giving inexperienced players minutes, whether they make mistakes or not.”

The Navigators peppered Dufour with 10 shots in the first period. The Red Eddies struggled to generate offense, with four shots in the frame.

Falmouth started to find its game in the second period, including Hagerty’s goals 6:40 in.

“I liked we came back in the second and third periods and played better hockey,” Barton said. “…They made some good plays, they were getting the bounces tonight, we weren’t, but we killed off three penalties, and we had some serious grade-A scoring opportunities too.”

Edward Little (1-2) had the game’s only three power plays. On the Red Eddies’ second one, midway through the third period, Gagne called a timeout to get a play drawn up.

“We were trying to set up a play, either a give-and-go or (a play) on the back door,” Gagne said. “It didn’t materialize. We got one shot, but we lost the puck and nothing got back set like we wanted to.”

Gagne did say the third period was the Red Eddies’ best period. He liked how they were able to put pressure on White for most of it.

The Red Eddies got one more man-advantage with under three minutes left in the game. They couldn’t pull Dufour until under 30 seconds left when the power play expired.

“I wasn’t surprised by the timeout, it was a good opportunity to call the timeout,” Barton said. “But I was surprised he didn’t pull his goalie.”

Gagne said the Red Eddies were already a man-up and didn’t feel the need to pull Dufour.

“I thought we would have the chance to do the things we wanted to do,” Gagne said. “I thought our guys were a little tired.”

Whiting had the only high-quality scoring chance in the first period when he had a semi-breakaway, but Dufour stopped him at 7:20 into the period.

The Red Eddies had an opportunity in front of the crease later in the period, but couldn’t get a quality shot on White.

“We seem like we can’t get a bounce to put the puck in the net,” Gagne said. “Overall, it was a great game, but when you still come out on the short end — you still need a goal. We are still looking for a goal-scorer.”