ORONO, Maine — It’s not how many saves you make, it’s when you make them.
Leavitt High School senior goalie Cody Violette robbed Old Town’s Trevor Francis of a potential tying goal with four minutes remaining and the Hornets survived a two-man disadvantage spanning 1:07 late in the third period to beat the Coyotes 4-2 at Alfond Arena Monday night.
Leavitt of Turner improved to 1-1 while Old Town fell to 0-2.
Cooper Legee’s goal just 46 seconds into the game staked Leavitt to a 1-0 lead and Kevin Theiss’ power-play goal 3:55 into the second period expanded the lead before Old Town’s Emily Trembley sliced the lead in half 6:02 later.
Ian Durgin made it 3-1 2:32 into the third period but Tyler Vandez answered at the 7:05 mark.
Violette came up with his lead-preserving save before Durgin added an empty-netter with 50 seconds left.
Francis’ opportunity came off a cross-crease pass from Vandez, who slid it across from Violette’s left to his right. Francis was unattended at the far post but Violette flashed across to make the save.
“I read the pass across and just tried to push off as hard as I could with my left skate,” explained Violotte. “I was able to get over and get my blocker on it.”
Violette had made several good saves earlier in the period, holding his ground to smother Vandez’s two attempts from the doorstep and then get his stick on David Wilcox’s snap shot from the slot.
Legee opened the scoring with a nice rush through the neutral zone into the offensive zone and a low 16-foot wrister from the left circle that beat Old Town freshman goalie Patrick Spaulding to the far side.
The Hornets killed a full two-minute, two-man disadvantage later in the period, limiting Old Town to two harmless shots, and had several chances to extend the lead only to be thwarted time and time again by Spaulding.
Leavitt made it 2-0 when Legee cleanly won a faceoff to Theiss at the top of the circle and Theiss’ one-timer snaked between Spaulding’s pads.
Spaulding kept the deficit at 2-0 by stopping a Theiss breakaway with 6:17 left and Trembley got one back by tucking the rebound of a Vandez shot past Violette from the edge of the crease. Vandez had come around the net and fired a quick wrister that Violette saved on the short side.
Spaulding then stymied Tyler Hutchinson, who broke in alone with teammate Cole Rowland right behind him. Spaulding got his stick on the breakaway and then snared the puck out of the air as he fell backward with Rowland waiting for a rebound.
Durgin made it 3-1 by taking a pass from Hutchinson and converting on a three-on-two as he cut to his right across and fired a wrister that glanced in off Spaulding.
Vandez answered during a goalmouth scramble as he poked at the puck and “it looped up in the air and went in.”
But the Coyotes couldn’t capitalize on its two-man advantage and Violette made his vital saves before Durgin scored into the empty net from just outside his own blue line.
Old Town was dangerous in transition thanks to speedy Cody Cross and the line of Vandez, Trembley and Ryan Dubay.
“Overall, I thought we played pretty well,” said Old Town coach Brett Hale. “[Not scoring] on that [two-minute] five-on-three in the first period hurt.”
Both goalies were outstanding. Violette finished with 26 saves while Spaulding wound up with 25.
“It was a little ugly but we’ll take it,” said Leavitt coach Ron Rouillard.
His Hornets, led by brothers Kevin and Eric Theiss, Legee, Durgin and defenseman Nick Urquhart, had the better of the play and created more high-percentage scoring chances.