Witches edge Riots in OT

INDIAN ISLAND – Brewer High School junior center Chris Munroe has haunted the Orono High School Riots this season. But he carried that a step further on Wednesday night.

Munroe’s goal with 1:36 remaining tied the game, then he set up Darren Beers’ overtime power play game-winner to lift the Witches to a 2-1 victory over Orono in their Eastern Maine Class B schoolboy hockey quarterfinal at the Sockalexis Memorial Ice Arena.

Third-seeded Brewer, 13-7, will now play No. 2 Winslow, 14-3, in Friday night’s semifinals at the University of Maine’s Alfond Arena. Top-seeded Old Town, 17-1, will meet No. 5 Lawrence of Fairfield, an 8-3 winner over Gardiner, in the other semifinal. The Red Riots, who wound up 7-12, played a near-flawless game against the favored Witches, who had beaten the Riots 7-2 and 4-1 during the regular season. The Riots effectively pinned the Witches in their own end with an aggressive rotating 1-2-2 forecheck and they did an equally superb job in the defensive zone, limiting Brewer to very few high-percentage scoring chances.

Riot defensemen Justin Jamison, Andrew Bayer, Sean Murphy, and Chris Thurlow turned in impressive performances.

Orono outshot the Witches 23-18 including a 15-1 margin in the first period.

But Munroe, who had five goals and three assists in the two regular season games against the Riots, scored off a nice individual effort to send the game into overtime.

The puck got caught in the skates of Murphy and Munroe poked it free in the neutral zone and bore in on Orono goalie Jason Towns off the left wing.

“When I cut across the front, he slid over and left the five-hole open,” said Munroe, who swept it between the goalie’s pads.

“I purposely gave him the five-hole because I was going to slide my stick across (to make the save),” said Towns. “But I didn’t get my stick across in time because he shot the puck a lot more quickly than I expected.”

Brewer goalie Joel Dolbow came up with a couple of good stops in overtime before the Witches received a power play when freshman defenseman Chris Thurlow held Brewer’s Saulius Vydas to prevent him from going in alone on Towns.

One minute and two seconds later, Chris Roeder’s shot went wide to the short side and Munroe tracked the loose puck down behind the net.

He spotted the open Beers in the middle of the slot and put a pass right on his stick.

“I just shot it in the corner of the net,” said sophomore right wing Beers of his 12-footer. “Chris deserves all the credit.”

Orono took a 1-0 lead at the 4:35 mark of the first period on a fluke goal.

Matt Westhoven got the puck at the left point and flipped a soft backhander toward the net that rolled inside the far post.

“There was a miscommunication. I thought our defenseman (David Hinckley) was going to play it,” said Dolbow.

But Dolbow kept the Witches within one by making several good stops later in the first period.

Brewer outshot Orono 14-6 over the last two periods but didn’t get many good chances and Towns came up with some good stops when they did.

Witches 2, Riots 1 (OT)

Brewer 0 0 1 1 – 2 Orono 1 0 0 0 – 1

First period – 1. Orono, Westhoven 16 (unassisted), 4:35; Penalties – Brewer, too many men on the ice, 5:51; Brewer, Craig, charging, 13:01

Second period – No scoring; Penalties – Orono, Murphy, interference, 7:04

Third period – 2. Brewer, Munroe 20 (Vydas), 13:24; Penalties – none

Overtime – 3. Brewer, Beers 21 (Munroe), 3:27; Penalties – Orono, Thurlow, holding, 2:25

Shots on goal: Brewer 1-7-7-3-18; Orono 15-3-3-2-23

Goaltenders: Brewer, Joel Dolbow; Orono, Jason Towns