BIDDEFORD — It’s an impressively long streak of hockey playoff appearances that Kennebunk has, stretching back nearly 15 years, or nearly as long as each of the current Rams have been alive.

However, with the Western-A post-season field cut this year to eight teams, and with the Rams (4-9) running short on experience and wins, that lengthy run is at risk of interruption.

Kennebunk’s hopes took a further hit, Wednesday, when it dropped a 3-1 count to South Portland, at Biddeford Ice Arena.

Goals in the third period by juniors Brian Cleary and Zach Horton enabled the Riots (9-3) to snap a 1-1 tie and capture their eighth win in a row.

“We went into it,” said Don Hill, Kennebunk’s veteran coach, “feeling like we needed to win to have a shot at it. Now I think we’d have to upset a Falmouth or a TA [Thornton Academy] at this point to get in.”

That would mean toppling the No. 2 or No. 3 ranked teams in the State, and vaulting over four teams with winning records, just to slip into the eighth and final playoff berth.

Still, junior goalie Jordon Kadlik helped keep the flame flickering with a stellar, 40-save performance, with 15 of those coming in the first period.

That’s as many shots as Kennebunk threw the entire game at South Portland sophomore goalie Dominic Desjardins.

“Their goalie’s tough,” said South Portland coach Joe Robinson, a Biddeford resident. “He’s a big target. Great glove and covers a lot of net.”

The only shot to get past Kadlik in the first two stanzas came with 30.4 seconds remaining in the first, when freshman Nick Whitten sent a “Texas Leaguer” in over Kadlik’s shoulder.

That goal was answered by Joe York, Kennebunk’s top scorer, who popped in his 16th goal at 13:46 of the second, making it 1-1.

It was one of the few times York was able to shake the Red Riots’ effort to shadow him.

“They played two men on York,” said Hill. “Every time he touched the puck, they had two men on him.”

Cleary snapped the tie at 4:32 of the third, when he was allowed to set up in front of Kadlik and buried a chance from 10 feet away.

Kennebunk had few scoring chances after that, and Horton sealed the Rams’ fate with a flukey goal at 8:52.

“I give it up to South Portland,” said Hill. “They did what they needed to do to win the game.”

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.