GORHAM — The Thornton Academy Golden Trojans were well on their way to rolling past Gorham on Thursday, but the Rams made it interesting before falling 7-4 at USM Ice Arena.
The Trojans jumped on the board first, and then jumped on the scoreboard again. Eric Profenno found Steve Comar from behind the net, and Comar put Thornton up 1-0 just over two minutes in. The Trojans tried the same trick again, and it worked, as Carter Davis fed Owen Elliot in the same fashion just 27 seconds later.
Alex Fallon scored later in the period for the Trojans, beating Gorham goalie Justin Broy with a back-hand shot to give Thornton a 3-0 lead.
Spence Cowand got the Rams on the board late in the opening period to make it a 3-1 game.
Gorham started to tip the ice in its favor early in the second period, but the Trojans fended off the Rams’ attack. Thornton killed off a Davis penalty midway through the period, and seemed to regain momentum after that.
The Trojans used that momentum to up the lead back to three, as Comar fed Fallon from behind the net with three minutes remaining in the period.
Comar put the game seemingly out of reach early in the third period. He found himself unchallenged behind the net, brought it out in front and flipped in his second goal of the game just 1:30 into the period. He then completed the hat trick a couple minutes later, as Fallon won a faceoff in the attacking zone, gave it to Comar, and Comar slithered his way through defenders and beat Broy in front of the net.
“Steve can score at will. He’s got the quickest shot in the league,” Fallon said of Comar. “Any day he’ll put it in the net.”
“He has the ability to finish,” Thornton head coach Jamie Gagnon said of what makes Comar so good. “Some nights he can put them away and pile them up, and tonight he was able to do that.”
Despite a five-goal deficit the Rams didn’t give up. Cowand scored his second goal of the game, beating Thornton goalie Andrew Huot to the left side in a four-on-four situation. Gorham then cut the deficit to two with goals by Chris Hardy and Jared Wood less than two minutes apart with under five minutes to go.
“We probably got caught on our heels,” Gagnon said of how they let Gorham back in the game. “We weren’t playing with quite the same intensity we were playing with when it was a tight game. Ultimately we got to play 45 minutes every single night. This can happen any night, and against any team.”
The Trojans held on, though, and Drew Lavigne capped off the win with an empty-netter.
“Overall, a pretty good day, but a tough finish,” said Gagnon. “It was a better hockey game probably than the score indicated.”
The win improved Thornton’s record to 4-2, with a tough mid-season stretch starting on Saturday against top Eastern Maine contender Bangor.
Fallon said the team isn’t quite where they want to be, but that they are getting there.
“We’re almost there,” said Fallon. “It’s a work in progress. We should be there soon.” — Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323 or follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.
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