The Gorham girls’ ice hockey team is usually a conservative bunch who wear out their opponents playing a strong defensive style of hockey.

Last Tuesday, however, the Rams slid onto the ice with their guns blazing to seize a victory against ninth-seeded Yarmouth, 6-4, in a Maine Girls Ice Hockey Association preliminary playoff bout at USM. The home team accumulated over 20 shots in the contest.

“We’re pretty evenly matched teams, there are a few good skaters on both sides and generally we’re all about the same level,” said Gorham senior captain Becky Muller. “We don’t have many close games like that, so it was nice to play somebody that was about our skill level.”

Following the face-off, the Lady Rams unleashed an all-out offensive toward the visitors’ net. The aggressive strategy paid off when, just over a minute into the action Kate Bowring recovered a deflected Yarmouth pass. She sped up the ice toward a one-on-one opportunity against the Clipper goalie and capitalized, giving Gorham an early 1-0 lead.

The hosts didn’t wait long to add to the deficit. As the Ram skaters all converged on the net, forward Hilary Innes slipped a centering pass to freshman Caitlin Caldwell who glanced the puck past a diving Yarmouth goaltender to pull ahead by two.

“The object today was putting the puck on net,” said Gorham coach Chris Bowring. “You don’t lose if you do that.”

“We took all the scoring opportunities we could,” said Muller.

Following a Clipper goal by Nicole Simmonds, Caldwell tallied her second score of the afternoon when she put back a rebound with 6:15 remaining in the period. Yarmouth concluded the first by bringing the score to 3-2 off of a power play goal.

Senior Becky Schaffer knotted the contest at 3-3 early in the second. The forward clipped an awkward shot from the side of the crease that managed to bounce off goalie Nicole Johns’ shoulder and into the net. The Clipper point, however, was only fuel that sparked a rampage by the hosts.

The Rams fired eight consecutive bullets at the Yarmouth goaltender, the last of which came during a power play when Innes skated unimpeded up the ice and rifled a close-range slap-shot for the go-ahead goal.

The visitors would score again shortly after, but their celebration was quickly eclipsed when Caldwell achieved a hat trick and concluded the period with a 5-4 Gorham advantage.

“It was a back and forth game,” said Bowring. “It was pretty tight, but they stuck in there to the end. I thought we played very well today.”

In contrast to the first two thirds of the match, both squads had trouble finding good angles in the final period. Finally, with 3:32 remaining, defenseman Ashley Martin obtained a deflected Clipper pass and sprinted up center ice with the puck. The freshman’s shot evaded the sprawling goaltender and clinched the Rams win.

“Every year so far we’ve gotten into the playoffs but lost in the first round,” said junior Kasey Gallant. “It was great to win our first playoff game ever.”

After overtaking the Clippers, Gorham was spurred into a quarterfinal match-up against first seeded Falmouth the following day. Despite implementing a defensive strategy, the Rams were unable to outscore the Yachtsmen, and the season officially came to an end. However, the friendships forged and memories made by every team member will continue to press on.

The Rams have only three seniors on the squad, and as with any young team, the season commenced with some question marks surrounding the fledgling skaters. The girls, however, remained unfazed by the daunting challenges ahead of them and stepped it up to take advantage of their potential.

“Since the first day of practice everyone has definitely improved a lot, especially in our skating, stick-handling and understanding of how to play overall,” said Innes. “We’ve all developed as a team and understand each other’s abilities really well.”

“I think it helps that in practices we play a lot of game type drills,” said Kate Bowring, “We are participating in mini-games but at the same time working on passing with each other and cycling and skating and most of all scoring.”

Gorham was tested frequently by more experienced clubs. With only a few seasons under their belt, the girls ice hockey program is still in its developing stages when compared with other schools around the state. Despite this, the Rams proved that the team has a bright future ahead of them.

“A couple of key moments this year were when we upset Leavitt after they beat us earlier in the season and also the game where we played Scarborough,” said Bowring. “It was a very close game where we almost won. They were in second place so we proved that we were a contender.”

Of course, growing up never comes without bumps in the road.

“This season we learned what it meant to take a loss. I mean by this that even when we lost a game that we had played hard in, we didn’t take it personally,” said Muller. “Every girl played with heart and gave more than 100 percent every shift on the ice. When we were down with penalties, every girl called upon stepped up to the plate and did everything they could to keep the opponents at bay.”

Thanks to some great senior leadership by Muller, Molly Stelmack and Charlotte Stuart, the underclassmen have learned and developed in many ways. With the season drawing to a close, the preparations for next year have already gotten underway. While many coaches are staring at vacant rosters spots and hoping for young players to develop in the off-season, the Rams look confidently at the road ahead.

“I feel that next season is going to be a good season,” said Bowring. “We are losing three seniors, but the rest of the team will be back, which is good since we gel well together on the ice.”

With their high school careers concluded, the seniors fondly pass the torch on to the next generation of Gorham skaters.

“I have never seen a group of people as fun-loving and energetic as these girls,” said Muller. “They really made an effort to include everyone in all activities: the team dinners, the locker room jokes and the times we spent together outside of hockey-related activities.”