ORONO, Maine — Sophomore Wyatt Allen tapped in a pass from freshman Henry Armell 2:15 into the third overtime to give the third-seeded Hampden Academy Broncos a thrilling 2-1 victory over top seed Messalonskee High of Oakland in the Class B North schoolboy hockey championship game at the Alfond Arena on Wednesday night.
Hampden Academy, now 14-6-1, will face South champ York in Saturday’s 1 p.m. state championship game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
It is Hampden’s first regional title since 2003.
The Broncos had lost in the regional title game four times in the previous five years.
It was a sensational goaltending duel between Hampden Academy senior Aiden Surran and Messalonskee junior Nathan Kirk.
Surran finished with 32 saves and Kirk wound up with 30.
“I’m obviously happy with the outcome,” said Surran who had high praise for Kirk.
“He played an incredible game as well,” Surran added. “All props to him.”
On the game-winning goal, the puck took a wild bounce off the boards behind the net and Amell spotted it.
“I hit it out of the air over to (Allen) and he poked it in,” Amell said.
The sophomore’s goal capped a thrilling game in Orono.
“It was a flutter puck off the boards, he batted it across and it was rolling on the goal line and I just tapped it in,” Allen said.
Hampden Academy coach Zach Wilson said it was a welcome win for the program.
“We’ve been here so many times, recently. It was getting old losing,” Wilson said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty goal. It needed to be garbage or a tip or what you just saw out there. I’m just super proud of them.”
Messalonskee coach Dennis Martin called it a great game on Wednesday night.
“We had some chances and didn’t capitalize,” Martin said. “The hockey gods weren’t with us there at the end. The puck bounces off something. A bad bounce and it ends up going in.”
But that happens a lot in overtime, Martin said, and he expected a close game heading into Wednesday given that the teams had already split two overtime games during the regular season.
“You had two good goaltenders and two solid teams,” Martin said. “When you play a team like that, it’s whoever gets the bounce or whoever gets the break.”
Senior Alex Beckwith opened the scoring for Messalonskee with a power play goal 5:45 into the second period but Broncos senior Miles Shields tied the game on the power play 1:21 into the third period.
Both teams had chances later in the third period and the first two eight-minute overtime periods but Kirk and Surran were stellar.
Late in the third period, Kirk robbed Colby Pangburn with his glove after Pangburn was set up nicely by Aiden MacFarline in the right faceoff circle.
Surran had a number of top-notch saves as he and his Bronco teammates had to kill a penalty that spanned the final minute of regulation time and the first minute of overtime and another one that began with 4:36 left in the first OT.
“Those were very stressful. You’ve just got to have faith in your defense and faith in your team as a whole that we can lock it down and clamp it up for those two minutes,” said Surran.
There were no power plays in the second OT and each team had four shots on goal.
Shields carried the puck through the neutral zone, put on a burst of speed down the left wing in the Messalonskee zone and fired a wrist shot from a difficult angle that beat Kirk to the short side.
The much more experienced Eagles came into the game with their six leading scorers being seniors while Hampden Academy’s top six point-getters were three freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a senior.
Freshmen linemates Armell and MacFarline were the Broncos’ top two scorers and their other linemate, Allen, was the team’s No. 3 scorer.
Beckwith’s goal was his team-leading 26th of the season.
Denny Martin carried the puck into the offensive zone and wristed it to the net front. Surran made the initial save off a deflection and a scramble ensued with Beckwith jamming it home.
Surran made some good stops later in the middle period as the Eagles enjoyed a 9-3 advantage in shots on goal.
The Broncos outshot Messalonskee 11-7 in the first period and had the better chances but Kirk kept them off the scoreboard with a number of high-quality saves.
Midway through the period, Armell made a nifty diagonal pass to MacFarline, who was alone in front of Kirk with his back to the goalie. He spun around and took a 10-foot wrist shot that Kirk kicked out.
Surran made a pair of rapid-fire saves to keep the game scoreless, getting his pad on an initial shot and then diving out to get his glove on Colby Hardy’s rebound attempt.
The Broncos caught a break when Christian Salvadori’s screened shot from the right circle on a power play rang off the crossbar.
Armell had a shorthanded breakaway attempt but was tripped to create a four-on-four and he nearly put the Broncos ahead when he sliced across the low slot from right to left but Kirk slid across with him and rejected his shot with his right pad.
Junior Brody Miller had an excellent chance late in the period when he burst around a Messalonskee defenseman down the right wing side and broke in alone on Kirk.
But his snap shot from the inner half of the right circle was knocked away by Kirk’s blocker.
Correction: The winning goal was initially announced for Henry Armell but was later credited to Wyatt Allen. The story has been updated.