Bridgton, Me. - The Central Maine Community College hockey team rallied with three goals in the final ten minutes to overcome a 2-1 halftime deficit to snag a 4-2 victory in a non-conference exhibition against Bridgton Academy on Wednesday afternoon. The teams, playing two halves per prep school rules, played to a thrilling back-and-forth duel that saw only one minor penalty in the contest. The teams hadn't met since February of 2017, when the Wolverines lambasted Central Maine by a 9-2 count.
The contest started sluggishly, with both teams getting acquainted with each other and playing most of the first opening five minutes at neutral ice. It would be a brilliant piece of individual skill that would open the scoring for the hosts, with Ryan Healey, a Westwood, Mass. graduate, burying a picture perfect wrist shot over Mustangs goaltender Ben Feldman as he wheeled across the top of the slot. The goal came at the 8:19 mark of the first half.
"The opening five minutes or so was pretty tentative," said Mustangs head coach Matt Buotte. "The goal kind of came out of nowhere on a great individual play. We weren't disappointed in anything we'd done at that point."
The offense would dry up again, this time for a nearly 14 minute spell. Then, in a flash, the game would explode into life. First, with 2:14 remaining in the period, Trevor Roche would poke home a cross-crease Zac Brown feed to level the score at one for his fifth goal in his last four games. Then, just seven seconds later, Healey would restore the Bridgton lead. On the ensuing face-off the Wolverines would streak into the zone and collapse on Feldman's cage with Healey poking the puck home for his second goal of the night, which was every bit as industrious as his first goal was skillful.
"They just collapsed on the cage and banged one in, really caught us off guard," said Buotte of the Wolverines quick response. "We didn't really make any adjustments at half. They were flying, they were a real quick team. We just wanted to neutralize them, slow them up a bit, and take our chances when they came."
The first fifteen minutes of the second half saw the score remain at 2-1, with Feldman shutting the door on the Wolverines as part of a brilliant 31-save performance. From there, Sean Coleman would explode to life. After a relatively pedestrian opening 40 minutes, Coleman would bury twice in a five minute span to thrust the Mustangs into the lead. First, he would take an Austin Taylor feed and race in alone on Orono, Maine product Parker Kohle's net before slipping a perfectly placed shot five-hole to level the score. River Yearwood would add an assist on the play after a heroic block in his own end. Coleman would then nudge the Mustangs in front after receiving a Shawn Sullivan feed and patiently waiting out Kohle to give the visitors a 3-2 edge with just 4:27 remaining.
"It's kind of funny, at one point Sean said, 'today just isn't my day,'" said Buotte of the Irish import. "Things were kind of bouncing off his stick and he was getting a little frustrated. He just stuck with it, didn't let it affect him, and helped us get a massive result."
The Wolverines would call a timeout with just under two minutes remaining and would throw several shots toward Feldman's cage, but the Mustangs withstood the onslaught. Taylor would put the icing on a fantastic performance with nine seconds left, racing in on an empty cage after a blocked shot in the defensive zone and giving Central Maine an exciting 4-2 victory.
"It was a great game, a lot of fun to be a part of," said Buotte. "That was a really good team over there. We want to test ourselves against good competition and we did that today. Now we've got two big ACHA games to finish up the semester."
The road-weary Mustangs, who have played 10 of their 12 first semester on the road, will wrap up the first half of the schedule with a much-deserved home series this coming week. On Saturday night they will host the Suffolk Rams at 7:00 followed by a 4:00 matinee on Sunday afternoon versus the University of New England.