York boys hockey defeats Kings in OT thriller

Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester's Brody Emond maintains control of the puck while under pressure from York's Joshua Neal during Saturday's game in Auburn. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

AUBURN — The York and Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester boys hockey hockey teams know each other very well.

The two programs have played each other eight times in the past three years and the games usually go down to the wire. Saturday night was no different. The Wildcats (10-4) came from behind on twice to defeat the Kings (7-6), 3-2, in overtime at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

“I mean, it’s been a back-and-forth battle,” York forward Conor Fell said. “They knocked us out last year in the South semis. We knocked them out the year before. It’s been an ongoing rivalry. I mean, it’s nice to go in here, get a win up here. It’s always a good feeling, honestly.”

Last year, all three games were 4-3, with York picking up the wins in the regular season and the Kings beating York in the playoffs. This season, York won the first matchup in Dover, New Hampshire, 4-0, on Dec. 17.

Kings coach Jason Rouleau hopes this season has similar results if the teams meet again.

“It’s been a battle and hopefully we play them again,” Rouleau said. We’ll look forward to it and hopefully the same outcome as last year for us.”

How did York win?

• The Wildcats entered the third period down 1-0 but quickly evened the game 1-1 with a goal from Michael Hanlon 50 seconds into the period. Dylan Jones had the assist.

• Breck Langevin scored his second goal of the game 10:34 into the third to give the Kings a 2-1 advantage.

• Fell tied the game with 10 seconds left in regulation when his shot fluttered past Kings goalie Reid Trepaney.

• Jones scored the game-winner when his slapshot from the left circle found the back of the cage 5:47 into the extra session. The Wildcats pinned the Kings in their zone 30 seconds earlier after the Poland co-op expected an icing to be called.

“Yeah, so I saw the puck just come around the corner and it just like slowly went out to me,” Jones said. “There was no one there and I was like this is the perfect opportunity to take a slap shot so I just went for it and luckily it went in.”

Statistical leaders

• York: Jones (goal, assist), Fell (goal, assist) Hanlon (goal), Maclean Douris (19 saves)

• Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester: Langevin (two goals), Brody Emond (two assists), Trepaney (13 saves)

What did this mean?

• York gets valuable Heal points and is in third in Class B South. The Kings, meanwhile, are right behind the Wildcats in fourth place.

They said it

• “But again, we were anticipating a whistle instead of preparing to play the puck and unfortunately, we paid for it.” — Rouleau

• “Yeah it’s every time it’s always an interesting game and you know what it is, it’s two teams that have some pride and compete. You know winning is really important to both of these teams are finding ourselves in the standings tangling each other there. So every game is always big when we play each other so it makes sense that they’re good games.” — Peter Douris