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LEWISTON – They call it penalty KILLING for a reason, and in the case of the Waterville Purple Panthers Monday night, theirs killed a chance at a second straight run to the regional and state finals by the Brewer hockey team.
The third-seeded Purple Panthers were outshot almost 2-to-1 at the Colisee, but they shut No. 2 Brewer out on the power play, scored on two of their own, and rode the superlative goaltending of Nolan MacDonnell to a 4-3 Eastern Maine Class A semifinal victory.
MacDonnell did everything but stand on his head to make saves, finishing with 30 on 33 Brewer shots, and Waterville’s penalty-killing unit stymied the Witches, who were 0-for-7 on the power play.
“That’s been big for us all year. We had big ones in the first period, the second period, and the third as well. One of them was even a 5-on-3,” said Waterville coach Dennis Martin, whose 14-7-1 Panthers advance to Wednesday’s East regional final at Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.
Meanwhile, the Panthers were taking advantage of Brewer’s mistakes, scoring two goals in five power-play opportunities.
Waterville scored its go-ahead goal with 8:11 left in the third period and its game-winner with 4:57 left. The first came in a shorthanded situation and the second during a power play.
The shorthanded goal came on a breakaway by third line freshman center Eric Aldrich, who senior first-line center John Massey found with a perfect tap pass on a loose puck scramble near the blue line. Aldrich beat Brewer goalie Eric White on a backhanded shot.
The game-winner came with 43 seconds remaining on a Waterville power play. Zachary Jochem scored with a high shot to the right corner. Shawn Lee and Timothy Locke were credited with the assists.
Brewer cut the lead on Ryan Nadeau’s slap shot off a room service deflection right to him following MacDonnell’s highlight reel save of a Dylan Fitzpatrick shot to the right corner with 3:27 to play. His goal from eight feet away was shorthanded.
Waterville, which beat Brewer 3-2 in the teams’ first meeting and then lost 3-0 despite outshooting the Witches in the rematch, turned the tables this time around: Winning despite being outshot 33-18.
“We gave up a lot more chances than we did last time, and we didn’t have as many shots as we did last time, but we finished this time around,” said Massey, who had three assists on the day.
Waterville wasted no time breaking the ice, scoring 47 seconds into the game on a slap shot from the left side of the net to the left corner by Ian Rowe. Rowe was set up by a pass from Massey, who was stationed to the right side and just behind the net.
Brewer scored back-to-back goals to finish up the first period. Tyler Coombs scored on a redirection of a blue line pass from Evan Nadeau into the right corner of the goal with 6:26 left and Fitzpatrick, the leading high school scorer in the state, scored his 34th goal of the season on a slap shot from the right side on a 2-on-1 pass from Ryan Nadeau with 4:38 left.
Waterville tied it with the only goal of the second period. Shawn Lee scored on a slap shot from the right side off an assist from Massey on a power play with 2:16 left.
“I’ve always been more of a setup man than a scorer,” Massey said matter-of-factly.
Martin couldn’t say enough good things about his defense and his goalie in particular.
“Nolan came up with big saves. I always tell him you have to come up with four or five big saves a game and he made seven or eight tonight,” said Martin. “Your goalie is your greatest penalty killer.”
Brewer coach Bill Schwarz said the second period, when Brewer outshot Waterville 17-7 and didn’t score despite a 5-on-3 power play, was the key one.
“On a lot of our chances, particularly our 5-on-3, we were shooting when we shouldn’t have been,” he said. “We needed to get the puck down low and take the goalie’s eyes away more.”
White finished with 14 saves on 18 shots for his Witches, who won the 2007 Class B state championship last year and wind up 17-5 this year.
“They played well at the times they needed to play,” Schwarz said of Waterville’s effort. “I think this is only the third of fourth game we’ve given up more than three goals all season.”
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PANTHERS 4, WITCHES 3
Waterville (14-7-1) 1 1 2 – 4
Brewer (17-5) 2 0 1 – 3
First period – 1. Waterville, Rowe (Massey), 0:47. 2. Coombs (E. Nadeau, Kotredes), 8:34. 3. Fitzpatrick (R. Nadeau) 10:22. Penalties: Waterville, Jochem, hooking, 3:39, Brewer, too many men on ice (served by E. Nadeau), 5:39, Waterville, Chaput, interference, 12:08, Waterville, Jochem, interference, 14:37
Second period – 4. Waterville, S. Lee (Massey) PP, 12:44. Penalties: Brewer, Lopez, hooking, 2:10, Brewer, Coombs, slashing, 10:31, Waterville, Gaudette, tripping, 12:57, Waterville, Bishop, holding, 13:37
Third period – 5. Waterville, Aldrich (Massey) (sh) 6:49. 6. Waterville, Jochem (Locke, S. Lee), (pp), 10:03. 7. Brewer, R. Nadeau (Fitzpatrick), (sh), 11:33. Penalties: Waterville, Perry, interference, 3:31, Brewer, Kotredes, tripping, 4:25, Waterville, Bishop, tripping, 5:17, Brewer, Coombs, elbowing, 8:46, Brewer, Helfen, roughing (served by Williamson) and 10-min. unsportsmanlike conduct, 10:03
Shots on goal: Waterville 3-7-8-18; Home 8-17-8-33
Goaltenders: Waterville, MacDonnell (33 shots, 30 saves), Brewer, White (18-14)
Power-play opportunities: Waterville 2 of 5, Brewer 0-8
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