The Presque Isle hockey team became the winningest team in Class B North after taking back-to-back victories over the weekend.
The Wildcats earned their sixth and seventh wins by shutting out Maranacook at home Friday, 4-0, and then edging John Bapst in a Saturday afternoon road game, 5-4.
Presque Isle, with its 7-1 record, is in third place in the Heal Point standings, behind Camden Hills and Waterville/Winslow, both with 6-2 records.
On Friday, the Wildcats outshot Maranacook by a 54-5 margin, but Will Hayes kept the visitors in the game with his brilliant outing in goal. After a scoreless first period, Connor DeMerchant scored on a breakaway off assists by Cameron Levasseur and Colby Carlisle. Carlisle then scored off assists by Jaren Winger and DeMerchant to make it 2-0 after the second period.
Thomas Patenaude converted a Jake Stevens assist 28 seconds into the third, while DeMerchant capped the scoring off assists by Noah Roy and Carlisle.
The following day, Colby Bonville tallied off a Stevens assist midway through the third period for the tie-breaking goal.
Connor DeMerchant and Thomas Patenaude contributed first-period goals for PI, with Gage LeTourneau assisting on DeMerchant’s goal. DeMerchant made it 3-1 off assists by Stevens and Patenaude. Winger netted a goal to make it 4-2 in the period, off assists by LeTourneau and Carlisle, but Bapst scored twice before the period ended to knot the score, setting up Bonville’s game-winner.
Brandon Poitras and Andre Daigle shared the Wildcats’ goaltending chores, combining for 13 saves.
“We outplayed them, but they never gave up and forced us to play an intense defensive game in the third period to preserve the victory,” said PI coach Carl Flynn. “Tight wins like this will be invaluable come playoff time and will teach us to not panic and instead trust our skill and game plan.”
