WINSLOW – With almost three minutes gone in the first overtime of Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class B hockey semifinal at a jam-packed Sukee Arena, Winslow’s Jason Carter flew down the middle of the ice and fired a wrist shot that clanged off the right post.

Moment’s later the persistent junior, who had scored a goal with 3:26 remaining in the third period to send the game to overtime, took a pass from Chris Langlais and calmly lifted the puck over sprawled Orono goalie Casey Hale to give the Black Raiders a 3-2 upset win over the Northeast’s top-seeded Red Riots.

Later Saturday night, Southeast No. 1 seed Gardiner shut down John Bapst of Bangor, the Northeast’s second seed, 4-0 to set up a showdown between Winslow and the Tigers in the Eastern Maine title game, Saturday at the Alfond Arena in Orono.

“It feels good beating Orono,” Carter said. “They always seem to beat us.”

In fact, the 21-1 Red Riots had beat Winslow five consecutive times, including an EM semifinal game last year.

The winning goal developed after Carter had intercepted an Orono pass meant to clear the zone. He sidestepped one defender and fired a shot that beat Hale but found iron.

Carter circled to his right and headed back to the goal. Langlais collected the puck and came out from behind the net to the left post. From there he slid the puck across the front of the net and Carter made no mistake with the second chance.

It was Carter’s third point of the night. He had assisted on Langlais’ goal that opened the scoring in the first period.

The Black Raiders, 15-7, overcame a 2-1 deficit after Will Toner and Mike Merritt scored second-period goals to give the Red Riots a 2-1 lead entering the third period.

“It was a great high school hockey game,” Winslow coach Lee Bureau said. “It was exciting. I had hold of my angina pills [for heart pain] there for a while.”

The game came within inches of going the other way. A little more than a minute prior to Carter’s game-tying goal in the third period, Toner had tipped a rebound of a Merritt shot past the right post.

“I think if we could have netted that one, I think it might have ended up differently,” Orono coach Greg Hirsch said.

Winslow goalie Tim Cloutier made 28 saves on 30 shots, while Red Riots goaltender Casey Hale stopped 27 of 30 shots.

In the late game, Gardiner combined a steady attacking offense with a suffocating defense to earn the win over the Crusaders.

Shawn Kelley, Ben Brown, Mike Patrick and Justin Lebourdais scored goals for 16-5-1 Gardiner.

The score could have been much worse had it not been for the exceptional play of John Bapst goalie Dan Leighton. The sophomore stopped 30 of Gardiner’s 34 shots and kept the Crusaders close, trailing just 1-0 going into the third period.

“Dan played a great game. But he’s played great every game this year,” John Bapst coach Doug Damon said.

The Crusaders almost scored something of a lucky goal just after falling behind 1-0 in the first period when Taylor Lynn fired in a shot from the blue line that Tigers’ freshman goalie Spencer Lahaie mishandled. He frantically dove back to the goal line and fell on the puck just before it crossed the line.

The Tigers went out of their way to ensure that the 16-7 Crusaders’ 50-plus goal scorer Zach Means was held in check, bumping and hitting the senior at every opportunity.

The physical beating, in addition to large amount of ice time he received, took its toll on Means.

“They played us perfectly,” Damon said. “Zach’s an uncommon athlete. The first line, they’re all uncommon. We weren’t deep. They played us perfectly. And they’re a well-coached team.”

Lahaie stopped all 18 John Bapst shots for Gardiner.

BLACK RAIDERS 3, RED RIOTS 2 (OT)

Winslow (15-7) 1 0 1 1 ? 3

Orono (20-2) 0 2 0 0 ? 2

First period ? 1. Win, Langlais (Carter, Dempsey), 14:00; Penalties: Win, Poulin, tripping, 3:50

Second period ? 2. Orono, Merritt (Toner), 3:46; 3. Orono, Toner (Skall, Merritt), 12:22; Penalties: Win, Carter, boarding, 4:18; Orono, Dwyer, interference, 9:08; Orono, Dwyer, high-sticking, 13:39

Third period ? Win, Carter (Picard), 11:35; Penalties: Orono, Toner, hooking, 1:36; Win, Dempsey, interference, 2:40; Win, Dorval, tripping, 3:24; Orono, Ferguson, interference, 4:28

Overtime ? Win, Carter (Langlais), 2:59; Penalties: none

Shots on goal: Winslow 12-6-11-1?30; Orono 12-8-9-1?30

Goaltenders: Win, Cloutier (30 shots-28 saves); Orono, Hale (30-27)

Power-play opportunities: Win 0-4; Orono 0-4

TIGERS 4, CRUSADERS 0

John Bapst (16-7) 1 0 3 ? 4

Gardiner (16-5-1) 0 0 0 ? 0

First period ? 1. Kelley (unassisted) (pp); Penalties: JB, Greenier, holding, 6:53; Gard, Lebourdais, interference, 10:43; Gard, Stangel, slashing, 14:23.

Second period ? No scoring. Penalties: Gard, Brown, holding, 5:28; JB, Motta, hooking, 5:28; JB, Sawyer, hooking, 5:58; JB, Meagher, hooking, 12:56; Gard, Patrick, interference, 14:52.

Third period ? Gard, 2. Patrick (unassisted), 5:22; 3. Brown (Lebourdais, McKay), 12:17; Gard, Lebourdais (unassisted), 14:19. Penalties: JB, Motta, roughing, 2:00; JB, Maynard, roughing, 6:19; Gard, Kelley, tripping, 7:26; JB, Maynard, slashing, 9:00; JB, Lynn, boarding, 9:48.

Shots on goal: JB 7-6-5?18; Gard 9-13-12?34.

Goaltenders: JB, Leighton (34 shots-30 saves); Gard, Lahaie (18 shots-18 saves)

Power-play opportunities: JB 0-4; Gard 1-7