BREWER – With two starters injured and a school winter sports history heavily weighted toward basketball, top-seeded Hampden Academy’s shot at its first Eastern Maine Class B hockey title was anything but a slam dunk.

But thanks to a group of guys who play like veterans despite having only five seniors among them, the most successful season in Hampden hockey history continues on.

Poise, talent and unselfishness carried Hampden past a gritty Presque Isle team for a 6-4 win and the East B title at T.J. Ryan Center Thursday night.

Expecting to be without at least one starter, the Broncos were buoyed when both Standley brothers – left winger Adam and defenseman Chris, who suffered slight ligament tears last weekend – were not only able to suit up, but start.

“We didn’t want to let our past dictate our future,” said Adam Standley. “This game mattered most of all because it’s what we’ve been working for all these last four years.”

The Standleys’ emotional lift combined with the torrid play of goalie Garrett Macgowan and center Greg Taylor, helped 20-3 Hampden move on to Saturday’s 1 p.m. state final vs. Cape Elizabeth at the Lewiston’s Central Maine Civic Center.

Taylor scored two goals and assisted on another while Macgowan saved 20 of 24 shots.

Despite having been dealt two of their three regular season defeats by the Broncos, the Wildcats, who wound up their season 17-4, served notice early they wouldn’t be a pushover to a team that outscored them 12-4 in the two previous meetings.

Junior second line center Trevor Graves scored the game’s first goal with 35 seconds left in the first period on a slap shot to the upper corner of the net from the right faceoff circle on a Ben Sirois assist.

The Broncos stampeded into the second period as Taylor scored 29 seconds in on a power-play goal assisted by Jason Huntley and Steve Boutin. After PI retook the lead with an unassisted goal by Joe Flenner with 10:16 left, Hampden knotted things up again. Taylor scored just over two minutes later and then HA took the lead with 7:05 left on Mike Brown’s slap-in of a loose puck in front of the net.

The Wildcats tied it again 32 seconds into the third with a Joe Collins power-play goal on a high wrist shot to the left side, but Hampden retook the lead for good with goals by Andy Caldwell five minutes later and Kevin Brooks on a shot 10 feet away from the left post off a rebounded save that skittered out to him with 6:51 to play.

Presque Isle made HA squirm when junior defenseman Ben Lynch took a loose puck on his blue line, accelerated, and scored unassisted on a slap shot from just inside HA’s blue line with 4:15 left. A Broncos’ empty net goal with four seconds left sealed the deal.

“I don’t think we really had a turning point until Chris Bearor put that empty goal in,” said Taylor. “We didn’t think we had the game until then.”

Even though he didn’t impact the game statistically, Adam Standley still added to the effort … by subtraction. The senior wing took himself out of the game after the first period.

“He played, but he wasn’t 100 percent. He knew it and we knew it too, so we went to a two-line system where we rotated two guys in,” said HA coach Tom King.

“It was a fight between pride and pain, but the team filled right in for me,” Standley said.

Sophomore goalie Sean Daigle stopped 23 of 29 shots for PI.

“We thought we knew what to do to win, but we had a few defensive breakdowns. I think that’s what cost us the game,” said PI coach Matt Gregg.

BRONCOS 6, WILDCATS 4

Presque Isle (20-3) 1 1 2 ? 4

Hampden (17-4) 0 3 3 ? 6

First period ? 1. Presque Isle, Graves (Sirois), 14:25. Penalties: Presque Isle, Gregg, tripping, 1:24; Presque Isle, Collins, hooking, 14:40.

Second period ? 2. Hampden, Taylor (Boutin, Huntley), :29 (pp); 3. Presque Isle, Flenner (una.), 4:44; 4. Hampden, Taylor (C. Standley, Huntley), 7:00; 5. Hampden, Brown (Bearor), 7:55. Penalties: Hampden, Ingerson, interference, 13:59.

Third period ? 6. Presque Isle, Collins (Baker, Flenner), :32 (pp); 7. Hampden, Caldwell (Brown), 5:53; 8. Hampden, Brooks (Taylor), 8:09; 9. Presque Isle, Lynch (una.), 10:45; 10. Hampden, Bearor (Brooks), 14:56 (pp, en). Penalties: Hampden, Taylor, boarding, 8:22; Presque Isle, Flenner, 10-min. misconduct, 14:48.

Shots on goal: Presque Isle 8-7-9?24; Hampden 10-12-7?29

Goaltenders: Presque Isle, Daigle (29 shots-23 saves); Hampden, Macgowan (24-20)

Power-play Opportunities: Presque Isle 1 of 3; Hampden 2 of 2

Attendance: 450 (est.)