FALMOUTH — The speed bump emerged. Too late in the game for Thornton Academy to recover from, but early enough from which it can benefit.
The Golden Trojans saw a two-goal third period lead obliterated by a five-goal Falmouth eruption, and lost 5-3 Thursday at Family Ice Center.
Falmouth (2-1) scored four times in a span of 4:11 to hand the defending Class A state champions their first loss of the season.
“It’s only the fourth game of the season,” said senior co-captain Tyler Danley. “We’ve got a long way to go. Hopefully we’ll get just better and work (things) out for the rest of the season.”
It all served to undo a 2-0 Thornton lead, that was backboned by strong work from senior goaltender Joe Ferrante.
Actually, Falmouth might have had the upper hand much earlier, except for Ferrante’s stellar showing in the opening period, in which the Trojans (3-1) were out shot 13-4 (30-18 for the game).
In that stanza, Ferrante kept the game scoreless with some huge stops, including his larcenous save at 12:40 on Ben Freeman, who had jetted in alone on a breakaway.
“Joe made some tremendous saves throughout that hockey game,” said Thornton coach Jamie Gagnon. “Joe has done that all year for us. Kept us in the game.”
That bought the Trojans enough time to take the lead, which they did at 4:14 on Bryan Dallaire’s goal.
Standing near the Falmouth blue line, Dallaire called out to defenseman Taylor Browne, who hit him with a pinpoint pass from 100 feet away.
Dallaire did the rest, racing in on Yachtsmen goalie Dane Pauls before beating him with a 15 footer to the glove side.
Thornton added to its lead on a power play at 1:58 of the third, when Nick Chen pounced on Dallaire’s rebound and scored.
For the Trojans, however, the good times lasted less than two minutes.
Catching the Trojans on a line change, Falmouth’s Brandon Tuttle cut the margin to 2-1 with a shot from off the left post.
Then, after Ferrante had a quick glove hand to rob Freeman again, the Trojans hit penalty trouble, and handed Falmouth an extended two-man advantage, which led to Alden Weller’s game-tying goal at 9:14.
“We probably lost our composure a little bit. Took a couple penalties,” said Gagnon. “But they worked hard for their opportunities. The latter part of the game, I felt like we were outworked a little bit. They kept coming at us.”
It took less than three minutes for Falmouth to score twice more, fattening the lead to 4-2.
“Those two quick goals, gave them a big momentum shift,” Danley said. “We just never got rolling from there.”
Thornton did show signs of life when C.J. Maksut scored on a power play at 13:19 to slice the margin to one goal.
The Trojans hopes were dashed just six seconds later, when Tuttle scored his second goal of the game to put the game out of reach.
While on the holiday break, Thornton will take part in the Maine High School Hockey Invitational, which will begin on Monday.
— Contact Dan Hickling at 282-1535 or follow on Twitter @DanHickling.
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