BIDDEFORD - It was Mardi Gras two days ago, but the Kennebunk, Biddeford, and Thornton Academy ice hockey teams will remember it as Terrible Tuesday with all three squads seeing their seasons end in the Western Maine Class A quarterfinals.
The Rams, Tigers and Trojans had extremely good seasons and all three teams had hopes of at least getting to the regional semifinals. But it was Scarborough, Falmouth, and Gorham that did the celebrating with two-goal victory margins deciding each of the match-ups.
Kennebunk (15-6) entered their quarterfinal game with Gorham as the No. 3 seed. The Rams pounded Gorham by a 10-3 score back on Feb. 4 (it is still the only loss that Gorham has suffered this season.) and they seemed destined for a trip to the semifinals.
But Gorham turned the tables on Kennebunk this time around. Unlike last month's game, Kennebunk did not score on its first four shots on net and they did not run away from Gorham in the opening moments of the game.
The teams actually battled through a scoreless first period with both squads having a couple of decent scoring chances in the first 15 minutes. (Gorham had a goal disallowed because it was knocked in with a high stick.)
Kennebunk's Dylan Farrell, Matt Tucceri, Kyle Baker and Marcus Smith all had opportunities that were off the mark or were stopped by Gorham goalie Brendan Foley.
Farrell gave Kennebunk a 1-0 lead 8:57 into the second period (with assists from Smith and Graydon) but Gorham answered less than a minute later to tie the game at 1-1. And when Gorham went on a power play nine seconds later, the visitors really seized the momentum.
Kennebunk goalie Pat Brady (26 saves) made some huge stops over the next minute and a half of play as Gorham looked to take the lead. But the Kennebunk defense held off the onslaught and they killed off the penalty.
Tucceri had a golden opportunity to score in the closing seconds of the middle period when he caught Foley behind the Gorham net trying to play a bouncing puck. Tucceri wheeled around from the back of the net as the puck slid dangerously through the crease but he was unable to get a backhand on the disc before Foley recovered to guard the cage.
Senior captain Kyle Baker gave Kennebunk a 2-1 lead with just a little over a minute gone in the third period. But again Gorham answered, this time with a power play goal at 4:11 of the third.
The teams skated at 2-2 for almost the remainder of the period until Gorham's David Gushee pushed a shot past Brady with 42.7 seconds left in regulation. Another goal by Gorham just 21 seconds later sealed Kennebunk's fate.
"You have to give Gorham credit for capitalizing on their opportunities. And we didn't bury our opportunities when we had them," said Kennebunk coach Don Hill. "Both times when we went ahead they came right back."
Fourth-seeded Biddeford (15-6) looked to jump on Falmouth early and they did just that with first period goals from Dana Gobeil (from Josh Robbins) and Shawn Grover (assists to Nick Reny and Brian Dumoulin). Gobeil nearly added to that 2-0 lead with a couple of hard slap shots in the closing minute of the period, but the Tigers settled for their hard-earned advantage at the first break.
With 11:08 to play in the middle period, Falmouth stole a misplayed puck and the Yachstmen netted a short-handed goal to pull within 2-1. And less than two minutes later, Biddeford's defense was unable to clear a rebound that Falmouth pounced on for another score and suddenly the game was tied at 2-2.
The Tigers had a couple of power play chances that went for naught (on one occasion they even had a two-man advantage for 1:01) despite the efforts of Nick Reny and Jeremy Grebin who buzzed the Falmouth net in the man-up situation.
With 48 seconds left in the period Falmouth's Travis Jordan scored what proved to be the game-winner as he took a pass between the face-off circles and fired it by Biddeford's sophomore goalie Tony Dube.
Biddeford peppered the Falmouth goal in the third period trying to get the equalizer. Adam Parent, Andy Rossignol, Dumoulin, and Gobeil all had scoring chances that were turned away.
Finally, within seconds of pulling their goalie and putting an extra attacker on the ice Biddeford watched their season end as Falmouth scored an empty-netter.
"We made too many mistakes to win the hockey game," said Biddeford coach Jamie Gagnon. "And when we had the opportunity to go up 3-0 or 4-0 we weren't able to bury it."
Biddeford had suffered a 3-2 loss in overtime to Falmouth back on Feb. 16.
Thornton Academy (12-9-1) also didn't have much luck in its quarterfinal contest at Scarborough on Tuesday.
The Red Storm outshot the Trojans by a wide margin in the first period and they grabbed a 2-0 lead.
Thornton fought back in the second and tied the score at 2-2 with goals from Ryan Foss and Craig Perham.
Scarborough then pulled ahead 3-2 before the Trojans tied the score again in the see-saw middle period. Chris Gennaro's goal midway through the period looked like it was going to send the teams to the third period deadlocked at 3-3. But the Red Storm scored for the fourth time on a power play opportunity five minutes later.
Ryan Foss scored his second goal of the game at 7:08 of the third to get the teams even at 4-4 but the Red Storm added two more scores in the game's final five minutes of play to pull away for the win.
Thornton faced off against Scarborough twice during the regular season. The Trojans defeated the Red Storm 2-1 back on Jan. 18 and the teams deadlocked 2-2 on Feb. 14.
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York is the No. 3 seed in the Western Maine Class B tournament. The Wildcats will take on No. 2 Cape Elizabeth at the Portland Ice Arena at 8 p.m. on Saturday in a regional semifinal. The winner will play for the regional championship against either No. 1 Greely or No. 4 Leavitt. The regional final will take place at the Colisee in Lewiston on Wednesday, March 8.
York and Cape Elizabeth split their two regular season games this season with the Wildcats winning at Cape by a 5-4 score on Jan. 12 and the Capers returning the favor with a 7-1 victory at York on Feb. 1.
