PORTLAND — If there were one sentiment flowing out of the Biddeford locker room following Tuesday’s 7-0 rout of Portland, it was this: “Now that’s more like it.”
Still smarting from their 5-1 season-opening humbling by Thornton Academy, Biddeford responded with an efficient (out shooting the Bulldogs 40-12), all-out effort against the hosts.
“It was definitely a confidence booster,” said senior defenseman Taylor Reuillard, one of the Tigers’ five goal scorers. “It was a great, positive game for us. There was so much hype for Saturday’s game. Then for this we were able to relax a little bit more and play our game.”
Fellow co-captain Tyson Nadeau echoed the thought.
“Saturday didn’t go the way we would liked it to have, but we didn’t let it get to us,” he said. “We came out here, gave it our all, and came out on top.”
Biddeford got all the scoring it needed on Stephen Comar’s first-period goal ”“ the first of his three-goal hat trick ”“ which came at 11:32.
Robbed moments earlier on a breakaway by Bulldogs goalie Jon Gatti, Comar swooped into the slot and scored on a feed from Nadeau to make it 1-0.
Biddeford blew the game open in the middle stanza, utilizing its power play unit to score three times and make it 4-0.
Technically, the first two of those weren’t power-play markers, with Reuillard’s goal at 5:14 coming two seconds after the one-man advantage expired, and Comar getting his second of the night one second after the finish of another.
The net effect, however, was the same.
“I’m counting them, anyway,” said Biddeford coach Rick Reissfelder.
What pleased Reissfelder the most was the way his charges stayed with the system.
“It was a big step forward,” Reissfelder said. “It took us a full two minutes on the first two, but we were getting looks. Better shots and better opportunities. I think the guys are starting to understand about their options out there.”
Reuillard’s goal, which came on a blast from the right circle, was the sum of several synchronized moving parts.
It involved defenseman James Jamieson’s ability to draw the Portland defense to the left side, Nadeau’s needle-threading feed to Reuillard, and Reuillard’s sure-handedness in front of the goal.
“You’ve got to go through the motion,” said Reuillard. “Take your normal shot. You don’t want to think about it. Even with an open spot, you just want to take your normal shot.”
Comar scored his final goal at 11:17, which sent the Tigers into the third period with just one mission: Close out the win, which they did on goals by Nadeau, Corey Brown and Patrick Ruck.
For Ruck, a sophomore, it was his first-ever varsity goal.
Biddeford will take to the rink Thursday with a visit to Cheverus, also at PIA.
— Contact Staff Writer Dan Hickling at 282-1535, Ext. 323 or follow him on Twitter @DanHickling.
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