AUBURN — York and Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester played Saturday night’s regular-season matchup like it was a playoff game.
The two Class B South contenders played in front of a full barn at Norway Savings Bank Arena and the game had everything: goals, big saves and big hits.
But the Wildcats spoiled the Kings’ senior night as Luke Douris scored two goals, including the game-winner in the 4-3 victory.
“I would say they are one of our rivals in the league because all the games have been so close,” Luke Douris said. “The boys get fired up to play against them. Anytime we are here or playing them (at home), we get up for it, for sure.”
Kings coach Jason Rouleau said games like Saturday night’s is just the nature of Class B South.
“Generally speaking, there’s pretty good parity across South B, and there’s going to be a lot of close games just about every night,” Rouleau said.
Saturday night’s game was the second of the season between the two teams, with the Kings (2-3) winning 4-3 in overtime in Dover, New Hampshire, on Dec. 16. York (4-2) won the regular-season games last season, 4-2 and 4-3, and the playoff game 4-1.
Both teams came out throwing big hits in the first period. The Kings had the lion’s share of offensive possession for the first half of the first period. They had two grade-A scoring chances, but York goalie Aidan McQuaide stopped both of them — including a sprawling point-blank stop.
“We knew they would be coming out,” York coach and former Boston Bruin and Maine Mariner Peter Douris said of the Kings. “It’s their senior night, they are playing at home, they want to have a good start and they did. We had everything we could handle, and Aidan held us in there and fortunately, we got one and built on it a bit.”
Rouleau said the Kings wanted to get to McQuaide (21 saves) early in the game.
“He’s a good goaltender, and I knew going into the season he would be one of the better goaltenders in the league,” Rouleau said. “He proved it again tonight, and I thought he played a really good game. We got a lot of pucks on net — we just didn’t get a good bounce. Actually, we had some good bounces; we just didn’t capitalize on them.”
York got on the board first when defenseman Bradley Carr’s slap shot from the right point went wide and redirected behind the end boards right to Brendan Dowling, who quickly fired the shot into the half-open net with under two minutes remaining in the opening frame.
Peter Douris said it wasn’t a designed play, but the Wildcats know to shoot the puck.
“It’s not a practiced set play, but we do a lot of work trying to get the pucks to the net and the guys going there,” Peter Douris said. “When you do that, you get those bounces, and things happen.”
Luke Douris opened the Wildcats’ lead to 2-0 when his wrist shot beat Kings goalie Ian Guerin (13 saves) nearly five minutes into the period.
“I was trying to get it on net,” Luke Douris said. “I wasn’t trying to score on that, but there was a hole and it went in.”
Carr scored a power-play tally when Guerin stopped the initial shot, but the puck rolled through the crease and Carr tapped it in 10:49 into the middle frame for a 3-0 lead.
Will Keach nearly got the Kings within a goal before the end of the second period. He skated into the offensive zone with a burst of speed and roofed a shot past McQuaide nearly 13 minutes into the period to cut it to 3-1. Shortly after the ensuing faceoff, he chased the puck into the offensive zone, but it was just out of his reach when he tried to lift it past McQuaide.
“The first chance was a great effort by Will and he took the team on his back and said, ‘We are going to come back and make a game of this,'” Rouleau said. “He scored a nice goal, and he just missed that second one on that second opportunity.”
Brec Langevin cut the deficit to 3-2 when he finished a cross-ice pass from Brody Emond early in the third period.
The Kings tied it six minutes into the third when there was a mad scramble in front of the net, then Connor Boulay lifted a backhander past McQuaide.
“We have been focused on picking up rebounds and score goals off of rebounds,” Rouleau said. “He picked up a good rebound to tie up the game.”
The intensity picked up again after the Kings tied it up. After Langevin got called for charging, Douris scored on the power play when his point shot went through Guerin’s legs 10:26 into the period.
“I was trying to keep it low and get some rebounds,” Luke Douris said. “That’s the goal with our power play.”
York went 2 of 6 on the man advantage and the Kings went 0 of 6.
Rouleau said the Kings had a lot of energy after tying the game up, which led to the penalties.
“We got a little too amped up and the result of getting amped up, we took a bad penalty and they capitalized on it with a goal,” Rouleau said.
Both coaches think they will meet sometime in late February or early March when the playoffs start — for real.
“It’s a possibility; we did last year,” Peter Douris said. “We ended up in the thick of it with this team, and again, it’s always a great game.”
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