i HIGH SCHOOL BOYS HOCKEY: Waterville wins 1st state title since 2001
Morning Sentinel
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS HOCKEY: Waterville wins 1st state title since 2001
BY BILL STEWART
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 03/08/2009

LEWISTON -- Shawn Lee shielded the puck from a barrage of desperate Saints, then sent it behind the net as the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard.

Moments later, the Waterville Senior High School boys hockey team tossed their sticks, helmets and gloves into the air inside a raucous Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The Purple Panthers were state champions again.

Waterville scored three first-period goals then hung on the rest of the way to beat St. Dominic 3-2 in the Class A state championship game Saturday before a near capacity crowd of about 3,500.

"It wasn't easy," said Waterville sophomore Eric Aldrich, who opened the scoring about a 3 minutes into the game. "But we pulled it out. We're state champions, and it's the greatest feeling in the world."

It's Waterville's 20th state championship and first since 2001, when the Panthers beat Portland 8-1.

Josh Gaudette scored the eventual game-winning goal with 5 minutes, 31 seconds left in the first and the Panthers short-handed.

Gaudette came into the offensive zone down the right side and flicked the puck on net. The puck then hit a St. Dom's defender and sailed past goalie Shayne Curtis.

"Skating into the zone, I was tired," Gaudette said. "I tried to put a shot on net and hit one of their guys."

It was the team's 14th short-handed goal of the season, which is tops in the state. Waterville only allowed 10 power-play goals, two of which came Saturday courtesy of St. Dom's senior forward Ben Randall.

The Saints outshot the Panthers 26-13 in the final two periods and nearly scored the equalizer when senior forward Spencer Teixeira hit the post from the right circle with 4:46 to play.

"These guys have been on a mission all season," said Waterville coach Dennis Martin, whose team outshot St. Dom's 18-7 during the first period. "We knew we had some talent."

Added senior goalie Nolan MacDonnell, who stopped 31 shots: "I was counting down the minutes in the end.

"I was counting down to the celebration."

Waterville came out flying in the first period and scored three goals in a seven-minute span, then killed off a 5-on-3 power play late in the period to take all the momentum into the locker room.

"We beat them up in the first period," Aldrich said. "We came out fired up and nobody could stop us."

Aldrich and Lee, who missed the previous two games with a shoulder injury, scored about a minute apart early in the period to force the Saints into the uncomfortable position of playing catch-up against a team that squandered just one lead all season, in a 3-2 loss Dec. 13 to Falmouth.

Aldrich converted a rebound off a Cam Bishop shot with 11:57 left in the period to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

"(Cam) Bishop shot it and it tipped over to me," Aldrich said. "I caught it off the backhand and put it in top shelf."

Lee padded the lead with 10:50 left and the Panthers with a two-man advantage. Lee took a pass from Kyle Bishop and fired a high wrist shot over Payne's left shoulder.

"Kyle Bishop got it in the corner and I snuck into the high slot," Lee said. "He fed it to me and I had all day to pick my spot, and I did."

After Gaudette made it 3-0, the Panthers gained even more momentum when they killed a 5-on-3 power play late in the period with their top two penalty killers -- Lee and Ian Rowe -- in the penalty box.

"Once they scored that first goal, we got down a little bit," St. Dom's senior captain CJ Bergeron said. "But we got back into it in the second period. We kept driving and driving them back."

Added Martin: "We knew it wasn't over when we were up 3-0. We had a long way to go. No lead is safe."

St. Dom's cut into Waterville's lead midway through the second period on a nice tip-in by Randall, who took a centering pass from Alex Parker and poked the puck past MacDonnell.

The Saints controlled much of the second, but again they failed to convert on a 5-on-3 power play, this one for 50 seconds with 9:49 left in the period.

Randall pulled the Saints within 3-2 when he scored with 9:21 left in the third. The Saints then crashed the Waterville net in the final five minutes, but couldn't push one past MacDonnell.

"We went back on our heels a little bit," Aldrich said. "The last five minutes were the longest ever. They were the longest five minutes of my life."

Bill Stewart -- 623-3811, ext. 515

bstewart@centralmaine.com

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