After a scoreless first period against Gorham at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham on Saturday, Dec. 30, the Windham/Westbrook/Bonny Eagle Trail Blazers hockey team came back from a 2-0 deficit to end the second period with a 3-3 tie game.
 |
| Trail Blazers junior Shaun Traina of Windham retains the puck as he skates around Gorham defenders during an ice hockey game on Saturday, Dec. 30 at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
“No one gave up on the ice tonight,” said Traina. “Everyone did their job ... we’re looking to improve our record; I feel like we got off to a slow start. We never gave up and kept pushing. We outshot them; we got pucks to the net. I think defensively we could have done a better job stopping Gorham – there’s no reason they should be getting five goals.”
Although the first period was scoreless, the Trail Blazers took shot after shot on Gorham’s goal and at the end of the period had matched the Rams shot-for-shot on goal.
Gorham jumped to a 2-0 lead within the first five minutes of the second period.
This only made the Trail Blazers fight harder. Windham junior Ben Shaw scored, assisted by Windham junior Philip Traina. Then Philip Traina scored, assisted by Bonny Eagle senior Aiden Toy and Shaun Traina.
“After they scored that first [goal] ... I don’t think anyone was happy,” said Shaw. “I was told to go out there and make something happen; it wasn’t a nice goal, but a goal is a goal. I think we were mad [after Gorham jumped to a 2-0 lead], it was fuel for us and helped get us going and put some in the net.”
Gorham scored on a penalty shot.
With less than five minutes in the second period, Shaun Traina scored, assisted by Philip Traina and Windham junior Sam Foley. The game was tied 3-3 after two periods.
The Trail Blazers were going for the win when they took the ice in the third period. Gorham was up by one goal. With 2:38 left in the period, Windham junior Cole Heanssler scored, assisted by Bonny Eagle sophomore Colby Haskell. The game was tied 4-4. One minute was left in play. Gorham scored with 40 seconds left. Then, with 22 seconds remaining Philip Traina fired the puck between the posts, assisted by Foley and Toy and the teams were headed into overtime.
“I was feeling it in warmups,” said Philip Traina. “I was willing stuff to happen, and they started going in. There were 30 seconds left in the game and I felt like we needed ... this win and went out there and made it happen. We started a little slower than we were expecting, and this win is huge. I think we were forechecking more. Not all our lines were going today; there’s a lot more to our team. This [game] shouldn’t have gone into overtime.”
Overtime had barely begun when Shaun Traina scored to end the game.
“We didn’t play our best game, but they found a way to win it,” said Windham/Westbrook/Bonny Eagle Trail Blazers coach Bobby Fothergill. “Our powerplay was really good; we only had one and we capitalized on it. The effort was there – the execution a little sloppy, but we’ll clean that up. The passes – not finding the open guy quick enough and taking too much time to shoot the puck. I’m proud of their effort and their will to win this game, that was a big win for us.” <
No comments:
Post a Comment