LEWISTON – Defense winning championships is nothing new, and Cape Elizabeth had plenty of defense Saturday.
The real key to the Capers’ defense of their Class B title, however, was in another D’: Discipline.
While the Capers were hardly angels on the Colisee ice, the Brewer Witches had no discipline at all early, and Cape Elizabeth took full advantage.
Ryan Tremblay had a goal and an assist and Tom Rich had a pair of helpers to lead the Cape Elizabeth to a 4-2 win over the Brewer on Saturday afternoon in a penalty-filled Class B state title game at the Colisee. The win gives the Capers their second consecutive Class B title and third in four years.
“This one was a crazy, up and down season,” said Cape Elizabeth coach Jason Tremblay. “The captains have done a tremendous job of pulling everyone together and the young guys came aboard and the last 11 out of 12, they worked really hard to be here.”
“You can’t coach experience,” said Brewer coach Steve Val Dolman. “They had their composure at the beginning and we were just nervous. Nervousness turned into aggression.”
The game was marred early and often by penalties, as both teams came out energized, but the energy quickly turned to indiscipline.
“We expected a very physical game,” said Jason Tremblay. “Both teams are physical. They took it to us pretty hard down in Portland back on January 7th, but we came in here healthy and played physical.”
Both teams managed to capitalize on their chances with the extra skater in the first, with Cape pushing two power play goals past Brewer netminder Aaron Saunders to the Witches’ one.
“We’re used to being short-handed and we practice our PK quite a bit in practice,” said Van Dolman.
“We were hoping for some more 5-on-5 hockey, and we didn’t get it.”
In the second, despite a bevy of calls – many of them matching – neither team managed a goal with an extra skater.
Cape Elizabeth did manage two even-strength goals, though, and pulled out to an insurmountable three-goal lead.
“To get the 4-1 lead, that was huge,” said Jason Tremblay. “We knew we had to bear down. The power play was a little off, but we did get two goals on the power play to start the game.”
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