- Several Mainers taken in QMJHL draft
- AHL approves sale and relocation of Portland Pirates to Springfield Hockey, LLC
- Dumont named Bowdoin head coach
- ECHL coming to Portland?
- Pirates leaving town with little warning
- Pirates leaving Maine for Springfield, Mass.
- Several UMaine recruits selected in USHL draft
- Pirates eliminated from AHL postseason
- Peters shuts out Pirates as Bears even series, 2-2
- Pirates take series lead on Flick’s 3OT winner
Edward Little overpowers Gorham with first period outburst
- Updated: January 3, 2016
(PHOTO: RAM Sports)
Gorham’s 9-6 shots advantage on goal in the first period for wasn’t indicative of how the period would shake out. Gorham got four shots on goal with solid zone time along with a power play opportunity, but they weren’t able to put the puck in the net.
Max Giard got Edward Little on the board first with his wrist shot from the boards that surprised the Gorham goaltender. Ben Steele assisted on the goal that came with 9:04 remaining in the first period.
Just 2:24 after Giard scored, he assisted on a goal where he dished the puck across the crease to Alex Landry, who shot the puck into the open net. Matt Verrill also assisted on the goal.
With time remaining on a Gorham hooking penalty, the Red Eddies would have an opportunity to get another goal at an important juncture in the game. Edward Little would be on the power play for another 1:09 to start the second period, and they took full advantage.
In the second period, Colby Bilodeau buried a rebound that came from a Ben Steele shot. The goal would put the Red Eddies up 3-0 and take the wind out of the sails early for the Rams.
“The boys were just working hard,” said Bilodeau. “They got it down low, and I put a juicy rebound home. The puck was sitting on the goal line, and my eyes got really big. Coach has done a great job putting together a new power play, and it’s worked out really well.”
For Edward Little’s coach Craig Latuscha, it was a relief after reconfiguring a lackluster power play.
“That was a pretty important goal,” said Latuscha. “We’ve worked on that for a couple practices, and we’ve changed the power play up. The third goal of the game was a goal that we needed to get to give us even more momentum.”
Although the Rams had opportunities to get on the board early in the game, the Red Eddies controlled the pace of play for almost all three periods.
“I’d say today was the first time we’ve played a solid three periods,” said Latuscha. “Their goaltender played pretty well. They have a few players out there that can be pretty dangerous out there if you give them a chance to shoot. We scored some goals today that we traditionally haven’t scored this season. We scored on a screen. We scored on an easy layup goal, and we crashed the net on the power play. It seemed to all work today.”
The Rams wouldn’t allow for a complete shutout, however. With 12.9 seconds remaining in the game, Carl Bear swiped a rebounded puck past the goal line to get his team on the board. Carter Landry assisted the first and only goal for the Rams.
Noah Bird made several key stops for the Rams in the loss. He stopped 24 of 28 shots while Dumont stopped 21 of 22.
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