Michaud’s late goal lifts PI past No. 3 Waterville
WINSLOW, Maine — The Presque Isle Wildcats needed some late-game heroics, but the team punched its ticket into the Eastern Maine Class B championship thanks to a 5-4 victory over Waterville in Saturday’s semifinal contest held at Sukee Arena.
Senior defenseman Andrew Michaud broke a tie by scoring on a slap shot from approximately 40 feet out with 2:45 to play, lifting the second-seeded Wildcats to the victory over No. 3 Waterville.
The teams had split their regular season meetings, with the Purple Panthers winning in Presque Isle Jan. 24, 2-1, and the Wildcats getting revenge with a 4-3 overtime victory Feb. 1 in Waterville.
PI played No. 1 and undefeated Messalonskee of Oakland in the title game, held at Alfond Arena on the University of Maine at Orono campus Tuesday night. The winner of that game earned the right to move on to the state championship, to be played Saturday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
On Saturday, the game went back and forth as the lead switched hands on four occasions and neither team was able to go up by more than one goal.
Christopher Lee gave the Panthers the early lead, but PI answered back with goals by Joseph Patenaude, off a Daniel Boucher assist, and Michaud, off assists by Michael Michaud and Denny Young, to grab the advantage.
With 20 seconds to go in the first period, Waterville knotted the score courtesy of a Gunner Hann goal.
Tyler Seeley put Presque Isle on top 2:55 into the second as he skated in from the left side and put a hard shot past Waterville goalie Kaleb Kane. Cooper Madore had the assist on the play.
Nicholas Dennis scored with 9:37 left in the middle period off a Michael Oliveira assist to tie the game for Waterville, and the Panthers went up 4-3 on a power play goal with 3.5 seconds remaining as Thomas Samson converted another Oliveira assist.
The Wildcats owned the third period with a lopsided advantage in shots on goal and put in the tying and go-ahead goals with Waterville unable to respond. Madore scored on the power play with 5:31 to go, with Seeley and Alex Michaud garnering assists. That set up Andrew Michaud’s game-winning play, assisted by Alex Michaud, less than three minutes later.
Jillian Flynn was the winning net minder, finishing with 24 saves. Kane also saved 24 shots in the loss.
Presque Isle fell to Messalonskee, 5-2, in the teams’ only meeting of the season played Dec. 28 in Winslow.
