BREWER, Maine — The two teams that hooked up in the Class A North schoolgirl ice hockey championship game last season met for the first time this season, and a last-minute goal decided it.
Sophomore left wing Celia Zinman’s second goal of the game, a power play tally with just 52 seconds left, gave Yarmouth-Freeport a thrilling 6-5 victory over the Penobscot Pioneers at the Penobscot Ice Arena in Brewer Tuesday night.
Yarmouth-Freeport, which beat the first-year Pioneers 3-1 in the North final, improved to 11-3 and solidified its standing atop the A North Heal Points standings.
The Clippers have won eight of their last nine.
Penobscot fell to 11-4.
A holding penalty with just 1:50 remaining in regulation put the Clippers on the power play and they capitalized.
Senior defenseman Amanda Panciocco had the puck at the right point and wristed it toward the net. Zinman, who was on the same side of the ice, was able to get her stick on the shot and direct it past sophomore goalie Abbie Derosier.
“That’s the second time we’ve done that,” said Zinman. “I saw the puck coming. I was screening the goalie and I knew I had to angle it differently. So I did. We work on tip-ins in practice.”
Panciocco said “I was just trying to get my shot on net. All three forwards can make a tip-in so I was confident one of them would get it in.”
Yarmouth-Freeport coach Dave Intraversato said “we were fortunate to get the power play. We have scored 14 power play goals this season. It is a strength of ours. I was pretty confident (we would score).”
The game got off to a wild start with two goals in the first 1:51; four in the first 2:59 and six in the first seven minutes.
After Isabel Peters’ game-opening goal was answered by Penobscot’s Paige Oakes, the Clippers received goals 21 seconds apart from Zinman and Rosie Panenka to take a 3-1 lead.
That could have knocked the winds out of the sails of the Pioneers, who were coming off a 7-2 loss to Cheverus.
Instead, Penobscot rallied to score the next four goals to build a 5-3 lead in the second period.
Junior center Paige Oakes scored Brewer’s four first-period goals before Delaney Carr made it 5-3 early in the second period.
But the Clippers responded with goals by Avery Buchanan and Sophie Smith to tie it up later in the middle period.
“They definitely came out hot and had us back on our heels a little bit,” said Penobscot coach Jarrod Williams. “But we figured things out and battled back and took the lead.
“We have to work on holding leads, for sure,” added Williams.
“That last goal was unfortunate but I’m proud of how we played. We didn’t let up. We fought hard for every puck, we kept our feet moving and we stayed positive on the bench,” said Penobscot standout senior defenseman Anna Molloy.
Peters opened the scoring with a shot from the right circle that went in off Derosier’s body for her sixth goal of the season.
Oakes tied it with her 21st of the year off the rebound.
Zinman pounced on a loose puck and scored from in close for her fifth of the season and Panenka expanded the lead with a shot from the slot off a Smith pass for her team-leading 13th.
But Oakes scored the next three.
She scored with a slap shot from the high slot off a Jordin Williams pass; converted a breakaway backhander after blocking a shot at the defensive blue line and capped the first-period scoring with a wraparound from behind the net while shorthanded.
Carr’s 10th of the season came just 1:41 into the second period as she took a pass from Williams on a two-on-one and beat Clippers freshman goalie Lexi Wiles.
But Buchanan scored off a three-on-one for her fifth of the season and Smith tied it on the power play with a one-timer from the low slot off a nifty pass from behind the net by Panenka.
Wiles finished with 20 saves while Derosier stopped 26 shots.
