Hampden Academy Hockey Beats Presque Isle 2-1

The Hampden Academy Broncos beat the Presque Isle Wildcats 2-1 on Saturday, December 28th at Sawyer Arena.

Thanks to our special hockey correspondent Adrian Ellingwood for the recap.

Both teams had chances in the first period, and it took just over 5 minutes for the opening goal to be scored. The Broncos struck first, with Miles Shields scoring the opener as he flew his way past the entire Wildcat defense. Colby Pangburn and Zach Wilson were credited with the assists with 9:29 to go in the period.

Both goaltenders were up to the task for the remainder of the period, and the score remained 1-0 for Hampden Academy.

More end-to-end action followed in the second period, with the Wildcats generating multiple offensive chances. With 8:14 to go, the Wildcats had their best chance of the game when Lucas Wood had a breakaway, but Aiden Surran made an excellent save to keep the Broncos in the lead.

The Wildcats penalty killing kept them in the game, killing off 4 penalties during the first 30 minutes of play. Hampden Academy remained in the lead 1-0.

Boston Merrow had a chance to double the lead for the Broncos with a breakaway 3 minutes into the period, but the shot was saved by Connor Bell in the Presque Isle net. The rebound popped up onto the glass and ricocheted to the front of the net, where it was batted in. The Broncos thought they had a second goal, but the ref called a high-stick as the puck was hit above the crossbar, and the goal was disallowed.

With 6 minutes elapsed from the period, a five minute penalty against the Broncos led to about half a minute of 4-on-4 hockey, and it was the Wildcats who were able to take advantage of the extra space. Oliver Woollard’s pass to Connor Voisine at the blue line gave Voisine a chance to play the puck to the face-off circle, where Gavin LeTourneau hit a perfect one-timer past Surran, leaving the Hampden goaltender with not much of a chance to stop it.

In the final minutes, both coaches used their timeout, and an intense game of hockey was seemingly destined for overtime. That was, until the Broncos won a face-off in their defensive zone with just 20 seconds left, where Merrow played the puck up to Colby Pangburn, who only had a defenseman and the goalie to beat. Pangburn dashed past the Presque Isle defenseman, leaving him in all alone against Connor Bell, where he fired a shot past the goaltender on his glove side. This goal turned out to be the game-winner with just 14.3 seconds left, certainly a moment that the Freshman will never forget.

The Broncos escaped with a narrow win, improving to 3-1 on the season. Hampden Academy moved to second place in the Heal Point standings, and will play Brewer on Wednesday, January 1st at Penobscot Ice Arena. The Wildcats fell to 3-2, fifth in the Heal Point standings for Class B North. Presque Isle will play at Old Town Orono on January 2nd.

You can nominate an athlete for 92.9 The Ticket's  Week 4 (December 23-28) by emailing Chris Popper. Nominations will be accepted for Week 4 through Sunday, December 29th. Voting will take place Monday, December 30 through Thursday, January 2nd  with the winner being announced on Friday, January 3rd. In your nomination please give the student-athlete's name, school, sport and any stats/times you may have.

If you are a reader in Aroostook County, you can nominate someone for the 101.9 The Rock's High School Athlete of the Week HERE

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