AUBURN — The Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester boys hockey team entered its Class B South quarterfinal against Greely having lost five of its final six regular-season games.
The Kings still earned the region’s fourth seed and a home playoff game, but stumbling into the postseason isn’t ideal.
Fifth-seeded Greely seized momentum early in Wednesday’s game, but once the Kings broke through, they controlled the rest of the game to earn a 4-2 win and a regional semifinal appearance.
The Poland co-op (10-8-1) advances to face top-seeded Gorham/Massabesic (15-4) at Troubh Arena in Portland on Saturday.
Greely (4-15) carried much of the play in the opening period, recording the first five shots on goal. Jaxson Booker got the Kings’ first shot on goal 11:42 into the period, and it resulted in a goal that gave the Kings their first lead since a 7-3 victory over the Gardiner co-op on Feb. 11.
“It feels good to get up early, and not the first period we wanted, but we came out second (period) playing pretty well,” Booker said.
Booker said the team didn’t feel extra pressure due to its recent struggles or the way it started Wednesday’s game.
“I don’t think so. I think we knew what we had to do,” Booker said. “And we just tried to do it to the best of our abilities.”
There was plenty of physical play by both teams. Poland’s Luke Lombardi picked up a roughing penalty, but teammate Hobey Duffy scored a short-handed goal 10 minutes into the middle period, giving the Kings a 2-0 lead. Then Hunter Landry beat Greely goalie Beckett Olson (13 saves) just 35 seconds later to make it 3-0.
“I thought the third goal … Hunter Landry just put on the jets and took care of business,” Poland co-op coach Jason Rouleau said. “He drove the net really well and was able to tuck that one home.”
Defensively, Poland tried to knock the Rangers off the puck at their offensive blue line, and for most of the game, Greely struggled to enter the offensive zone.
“They have some good skating defensemen (who) play a good gap,” Greely coach Barry Mothes said. “They tend to stay tightly gapped. They defend well, and they keep the sticks active. So it makes it hard to penetrate that pressure. Despite saying all that, we generated more offense against these guys than in either of the two (regular-season) games.”
Booker scored again on a power play in the third period, while Jack Noone scored twice in the final five minutes for Greely to break up the shutout bid for Kings goalie Logan Rousseau (20 saves).