Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland/Monmouth goaltender Paige Fecteau keeps an eye on Brunswick’s Solveig Ledwick. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick girls hockey team is a big fan of the 12-minute intermission between the second and third periods.

“It definitely helps us with the shorter bench, as a lot of Maine girls teams have,” junior Solveig Ledwick said. “It’s definitely just an extra time to catch our breath and get settled and talk about some key things that we’ve seen in the first two periods. Going a little more in-depth and using a whiteboard to diagram it up.”

As senior Lisi Palmer puts it, the second intermission is a time for the players to bond and get amped up, which in turn reinvigorates their play on the ice.

On Tuesday, that bonding between periods boosted Brunswick (9-3) to a 3-1 win over Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland/Monmouth (5-4-2).

With the teams tied at 1-1 to start the third period, Palmer ripped a shot from beyond the faceoff circle that deflected off a defender and into the net. A little more than a minute later, Ledwick sent a hard shot under the crossbar from nearly the same spot.

For both teams, the turnaround between this game and their next is more similar to the first-period intermission — short.

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On Wednesday, Brunswick travels north to play the Penobscot Pioneers, while Edward Little returns home to host St. Dom’s. The schedule continues to stay busy, as Brunswick will play its third game in four days on Friday, at home against the Gorham co-op. To round out its three-game week, Edward Little will travel across the bridge Saturday to take on Lewiston.

Neither the Dragons nor the Red Hornets played Tuesday like they were conserving any energy.

Brunswick opened the scoring at 11:35 of the second period, as Citlali Saavedra Estrada cleaned up Palmer’s shot that was blocked by Red Hornets freshman goalie Paige Fecteau (21 saves).

Twenty-four seconds later, Edward Little freshman Leksi Langevin evened it up, sneaking the puck in from behind the net past senior goalie Sensia Ley (five saves).

Brunswick forward Gillian Countway skates away from three Edward Little co-op defenders. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

“You’ve got to put it all in that game,” Palmer said. “You have the rest of the night to relax, put ice on your legs, get it going for the next day.”

“We’re just trying to win, and we’re trying to get our best players out on the ice as much as possible, candidly,” Brunswick coach Chris Ledwick said. “Yeah, a two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, they say. So we don’t have the luxury of trying to rest for the next night.”

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Red Hornets coach Dana Berube said his postgame message is about having short memories.

“We did a lot of positive things in today’s game,” Berube said. “That’s what we need to walk away from this with, and bring that to tomorrow’s game.”

Berube said that he has seen tremendous improvement from the freshman-heavy Red Hornets since they first touched the ice in a 5-2 season-opening loss to Brunswick in November, and that players have responded well to recent position tweaks.

“We’re excited about what we have and what we’re going to be in the next couple of years, but it’s another good learning experience,” Berube said. “You make a mistake in a tie game like that against a good team, and they made us pay. The simple fact that we couldn’t mount any shots in the third, we didn’t really give ourselves a good opportunity.”

Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland/Monmouth defender Avery Cologna attempts to poke the puck away from Brunswick defender Lisi Palmer. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

Both Palmer and Solveig Ledwick have seen improvements in Brunswick’s performance since the first game, particularly in the overall teamwork and their ability to adjust.

With no practices for the rest of the week, the Dragons will have to turn toward the intermission approach of mentally correcting any of Tuesday’s shortcomings. Chris Ledwick believes his team will adjust accordingly.

“It’s gonna be a stretch, but a lot of teams are doing the three games a week right now, and it’s actually a bit helpful for our team to get back into a rhythm,” Chris Ledwick said. “We took about eight days off for a hockey holiday over Christmas and New Year’s, so, frankly, a little bit of repetition is a good thing for us.”

Two of Brunswick’s three losses have come after a 10-day or longer break between games.

“I don’t think we want to do this three weeks in a row, but this ultimately will be a pretty good thing for us.”

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