Witches blank ‘Cats for crown 2nd in row for Brewer

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ORONO – Dr. Carl Flynn, the Presque Isle High School hockey coach, was right.

He was concerned his team didn’t match up nearly as well against Brewer in Wednesday night’s Eastern Maine Class B championship game as it did against the teams it eliminated in getting to the final: John Bapst of Bangor and Orono.

The Witches scored four unanswered first-period goals and never looked back, cruising to an 8-0 victory and earning a second consecutive EM B title.

The 20-3 Witches, winners of nine straight, take on 17-4 Greely of Cumberland Center in Saturday’s 1 p.m. state title game at The Colisee in Lewiston.

The fourth-seeded and youthful Wildcats, with nine first-year players, concluded a 13-8-1 season.

“They were bigger and faster than we were and they had more experience,” said Flynn. “They played in the final last year. We fell behind 4-0 and had to be more aggressive offensively in the second period and that made us vulnerable defensively.”

To their credit, the Wildcats worked hard throughout the game but the second-seeded Witches were quicker and stronger and completely controlled the game.

The Witches created a tempo that the Wildcats simply couldn’t match gave PI very little time or room with the puck.

Brewer had beaten Presque Isle 10-3 and 6-1 during the regular season.

“They played an awesome game. They were so much faster than we were,” said Presque Isle senior left wing Spencer Deschene.

John Ambrose, Mike Kotredes, Dylan Fitzpatrick and Tyler Coombs scored 5:09 apart in the first period and the Witches expanded the lead to 7-0 in the second period as Reid McLaughlin sandwiched a pair of goals around one by linemate Dave Perry.

Perry added a third-period goal.

Ambrose had three assists to go with his goal; McLaughlin had two assists to accompany his two goals and Perry had an assist to go with his two goals.

“I expected us to come out flying but I didn’t think we’d score like that. Those four first-period goals pushed us through,” said sophomore center Dylan Fitzpatrick. “We pressured them all over the ice and they coughed it up.”

Brewer senior goalie Aaron Saunders finished with 16 saves in posting his second consecutive shutout.

Presque Isle junior Ethan Hill made 34 saves.

“You can’t stop a good team like that,” said Hill.

“We were able to use our [superior] size and speed to our advantage. We were able to get the puck to the net,” said senior center McLaughlin, who praised the effort turned in by Presque Isle.

“We have a lot of respect for them. They never gave up and they didn’t get chippy like a lot of teams would have,” said McLaughlin.

Ambrose opened the scoring at the 4:57 mark as he pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone, broke into the offensive zone in a one-on-one with a Wildcat defenseman and wristed a 30-footer that evaded Hill.

“Their defenseman backed up a little bit so I used him as a screen. I shot it around his shinpad to the far side. It hit the post [and went in],” said Ambrose.

Hill said “There was a little bit of a screen. It’s tough when you don’t see it coming off the stick.”

“One of the things we said before the game was we needed to score the first goal,” said Brewer senior defenseman Devin Fitzpatrick, Dylan’s brother. “If we did that, we felt we’d be all right. And we didn’t let up.”

Kotredes expanded the lead on the power play.

The Witches possessed the puck in the offensive zone and it trickled out to the high slot where Kotredes did a 180-degree spin, collected the puck, took a stride, and snapped a rising wrister that glanced into the net off the glove of Hill.

Fitzpatrick made it 3-0, using a quick release to beat Hill from 35 feet and Coombs capped the first-period scoring by flipping the puck home during a wild scramble created by a Chris Lopez wrister from the mid-point.

Kotredes and Coombs play on Brewer’s third line along with Andrew Richardson.

“This was the best game the third line has played all year,” said Dylan Fitzpatrick.

McLaughlin opened the second-period scoring while the Witches were enjoying a five-on-three power play.

Ambrose had the puck at the left point and slid it to McLaughlin, who came out of the corner to Hill’s left and shot it back against the grain over Hill’s glove.

Perry made it 6-0 while the Witches were shorthanded as he chipped a pinpoint pass from McLaughlin on a two-on-one under the crossbar.

The two combined on the next goal, another shorthanded tally, as McLaughlin shoveled home a Perry rebound.

WITCHES 8, WILDCATS 0

Presque Isle (13-8-1) 0 0 0 – 0

Brewer (20-3) 4 3 1 – 8

First period – 1. Brew, Ambrose (McLaughlin), 4:57; 2. Brew, Kotredes (Ambrose), 7:35 (pp); 3. Brew, Dy. Fitzpatrick (Nadeau, Helfen), 9:18; 4. Brew, Coombs (Richardson, Ambrose), 10:06. Penalties: PI, McPherson, hooking, 5:58.

Second period – 5. Brew, McLaughlin (Ambrose, Dev. Fitzpatrick), 4:19 (pp); 6. Brew, Perry (McLaughlin), 9:53 (sh); 7. Brew, McLaughlin (Perry), 10:28. Penalties: PI, Daigle, hooking, 3:28; PI, Cyr, interference, 3:28; Brew, Coombs, tripping, 8:35; Brew, Dy. Fitzpatrick, tripping, 10:35

Third period – 8. Brew, Perry (McLaughlin), 7:13 (pp). Penalties: Brew, Helfen, high sticking, :51; PI, too many men on the ice, 5:59; PI, Hovey, charging, 7:47; PI, Martin, tripping, 11:07.

Shots on goal: Brewer 13-6-23-42; PI 6-3-7-16

Goaltenders: Brewer, Saunders (16 shots-16 saves); PI, Hill (42-34)