SACO — A four goal lead wasn’t enough for Biddeford. The Tigers wanted a bigger bulge, but one was not forthcoming.

So it was that the still undefeated defending state champions had to “settle” for a 4-2 win against a resourceful, if overmatched, Scarborough squad, Monday, at MHG Ice Centre.

Tyler Audie netted two goals, and Brady Fleurent and Scott Callahan popped in one apiece, to help the Tigers up their mark to 6-0-2.

And despite leading 3-0 after the first period, and 4-0 after the second, the Tigers never felt they could rest easily.

“Definitely a 4-0 lead going into the third feels good,” said Callahan. “But we’ve got to do a better at knocking off goals late in the game, because that could have easily turned into four goals for them.”

As it was, Scarborough (2-5-0) made matters interesting by scoring twice in the final period, which were as many goals as the Tigers had allowed in the previous three games put together.

“They (the Red Storm) battled hard all game,” said Audie, who has tallied five times in the past two games. “They frustrated us a little bit. I think they ran a trap.”

Ah, the dreaded neutral zone trap.

It’s a throwback to a time dating before Audie’s birth.

It’s a surprise that any of the Tigers had heard of it.

Surely none of them had ever seen it close up.

“I thought they did a good job of trapping us coming out of our zone,” said Biddeford coach Rich Reissfelder. “They made things difficult for us. Frustrated us a little bit.

“But for every negative like that, there’s a great positive. It’s the first time we’ve ever seen that, so it was a great chance to work through it. If it comes up again in the future, we’ll do a little better job of it.”

Biddeford appeared to be in for a romp from the first shift of the game, when Callahan scored just 23 seconds into it.

Stationed in the left circle, the senior winger laced a shot past Scarborough goalie Doug Pitts.

“We came out right off the hop, got a good cycle going,” he said. “Mario Lemieux got a good shot off the goalie’s pad, and I saw the rebound, saw the open net, and just buried it.”

Fleurent and Audie followed with their goals, with Audie getting his second of the game at 10:42 of the middle frame.

By then, the Red Storm had thrown everything back into reverse, hemming Biddeford inside the red line while pulling themselves back to within a pair of goals.

“It was definitely a good game plan,” said Callahan. “We haven’t worked against it. They were following us up the boards, and we weren’t doing a good job of going with weak side with it. I think we could have beaten it.”

Callahan thought that in the long run, Scarborough may have been doing the Tigers a favor.

“I think so,” he said. “We’ve run against it, now. It was a good test.”

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.