WATERVILLE — Waterville and Brunswick hockey players had barely finished their Christmas desserts when they met on the ice Monday morning, each trying to win their first game of the season.

Brunswick came out on top, surviving a slew of penalties in the second period and holding off Waterville 3-1 in the first game of the annual Christmas tournament at Alfond Rink.

The loss dropped Waterville’s season record to a surprising 0-5. The Purple Panthers have scored only five goals in the five games.

“I think a lot of it’s confidence,” Waterville Coach Dennis Martin said. “We’re just not getting a bounce. We can’t buy a goal.”

Of the tournament’s four games, this was the only one that counted in the Heal point standings.

Spaulding (Vt.) defeated Winslow 9-1 in Monday’s other game, so Waterville will play Winslow in the consolation game at 11 a.m. today, while Brunswick takes on Spaulding at 1 p.m. for the tournament championship.

Waterville graduated five of its top six scorers from last season’s 9-10-1 team, and the Panthers are clearly still trying to find their rhythm.

They got some momentum when Aaron Saucier fed J.T. Whitten in the slot and Whitten poked a shot through the legs of Brunswick goalie Jason Blier (28 saves) with 7:19 to play in the first period. It was Blier’s only misstep of the day.

“He let a little bunny in there in the first period, but he came up big when he had to,” said Brunswick Coach Mike Routhier. “He’s a big-game kind of goalie for us.”

The Dragons (1-2-1) tied the score just 47 seconds later. Ryan Maciejewski got a pass from Dylan Towle, created some space and fired a point-blank shot into the top right corner of the net to make it 1-1.

“We didn’t pack it up after that first goal,” Routhier said. “The last couple of years, we’ve struggled out of the gate after the holidays.”

Matt Brooks got the eventual winner 3:29 into the second period, as Towle dug the puck out of the right corner and hit a wide-open Brooks in front. Waterville goalie Cody Thibodeau (30 saves) stuffed the first shot, but Brooks sent home the rebound to make it 2-1.

The Dragons had to work to keep their lead, both because of Waterville’s determination and their own mistakes. In the six minutes after Brooks’ goal, Brunswick was assessed five penalties — four minors and a 10-minute misconduct on Maciejewski for hitting Waterville’s Zach Disch into the boards from behind.

With the penalties overlapping, Waterville had a five-on-three advantage for 55 seconds, and took a timeout before that stretch. But the defining moment of the game for the Panthers came with the two-man advantage. A pass to the point went past the blue line, as two Waterville coaches reacted by putting both hands to their heads. The Panthers had no shots with the two-man advantage.

“We were panicking,” Martin said. “A five-on-three, we were trying to press instead of relaxing and getting the puck to our playmaker. That’s why I called a timeout, to get us to relax.”

Almost as frustrating was Blier’s nice save off a Chris Lee slap shot, and worse than that was when Brooks and Towle hooked up again, this time with Towle flipping in a short-handed goal with 3:58 to go in the period.

“We’ve just got to fight through that stuff,” Routhier said. “We try to be aggressive, change up our approach a little bit — we’ve been a little too passive. We just wanted to do something different and it seemed like it worked. It paid off with a short-handed goal there, too.”

Trailing 3-1, Waterville was outshot 14-5 in the third period. Saucier had a wicked shot from the point hit the crossbar with 2:22 left, and Brunswick was in such control that Thibodeau could not leave the ice for an extra skater until just 10 seconds remained.

Only a handful of high schools in Maine can match Waterville’s hockey tradition, so in a lot of ways this is more than just another team in the process of rebuilding and learning to play together. Then again, Martin likes the hustle he’s seeing, and the season isn’t even one-third over.

“We’re not done yet,” Martin said. “The season’s a marathon. It’s only five games. Hard work will create bounces. We’re going to be a good hockey team if we continue playing hard.”