BIDDEFORD — Biddeford girls hockey coach Ashley Potvin said the theme for her team in its game against Cape Elizabeth/Waynflete ”“ Capeflete ”“ on Saturday was the “here and now.” Which meant to go out and win the first period, put that behind them and win the second, and then stay in the moment and finish off the game in the third.

After a 6-0 rout of the Capers at the Biddeford Ice Arena, in which the Tigers scored in all three periods, it was mission accomplished.

“This was the first game all season where we haven’t just won the first period or we haven’t just won the second period, we came out and consistently won all three periods, which was excellent to see,” Potvin said. “All season our struggle has been finishing the game strong, and they came out and finished this game strong. It was nice to see them really go out and do it.”

Five different players scored for Biddeford, who altogether had 10 skaters pick up points. One of those, sophomore defenseman Cassidy Petit, said it was the most complete game the team has played so far.

“I think, as a team, it was probably the best game we’ve played collectively on defense and offense together,” Petit said. “Definitely one of our better games so far. Especially this close to the playoffs, it feels good.”

The Tigers started off the stronger of the two teams and opened the scoring on the their first power-play opportunity with 2:07 to play in the first when senior captain Darcy Tucker redirected Taylor Turgeon’s shot from the point past Capeflete goaltender Lilly Jordan.

Just 1:40 later, Brea Rivard had Biddeford’s second, and it was 3-0 just 39 seconds into the second frame after Katherine Dumoulin slotted a loose rebound from an Abbie Paquette pass past Jordan.

Biddeford goaltender Cassie Ellis had little to do in the first two periods, but came up big with 32 seconds remaining in the second, making a glove save on a point-blank opportunity from Capeflete’s Madeline Ciraldo to stave off what could have been a momentum-shifting goal heading into the final period.

Ellis made 13 saves in total for her second shutout of the season, and Potvin said she was most impressed by the junior’s ability to stay sharp during the long intervals when she didn’t she much action.

“There were times when she wasn’t seeing a lot of shots, and she did a great job of staying focused and staying in the game,” Potvin said. “Sometimes when goalies get cold like that, someone can just come right in and take a shot and it goes right in, because they haven’t seen anything, but Cassie did an excellent job of staying mentally in the game and really making the saves when she needed to.”

Biddeford then finished off the Capers in the third, taking advantage of a five-minute boarding major on Capeflete’s Julia Ginder to score on goals from Petit and Tiffany Gagne. Another Gagne power-play goal concluded the scoring and the most polished performance from the Tigers this season.

“We put forth a really good team effort,” Gagne said. “Our biggest goal was to play three full periods of hockey, and we did. We just haven’t been able to capitalize on all three periods, and we’re really happy about finishing all three periods today.”

It was a big win in the standings for the now 6-5-1 Tigers as well, moving them past the 3-5-3 Capers into the fourth position in the Western Maine Heal Points. Only five teams make the playoffs in the eight-team league.

“We’ve been telling the girls this is really kind of the mirror image for us,” Potvin said of Capeflete. “They’ve had some really good games against the better teams in the state, and then they’ve had some games where it looks like they just didn’t show up to play on paper, and we’ve had the same kind of thing. So to come out and beat the team that’s one place ahead of you, I think it really makes a statement coming out and winning 6-0 and not letting up the entire game.”

Biddeford is now off until Thursday, when it will head to Falmouth Family Ice to take on Falmouth at 7:10 p.m. A win in the home of the 9-4 Yachtsmen, which won the teams’ first matchup 6-0 on Dec. 5, is a big ask, but if the Tigers are up to the task they can all but guarantee themselves a playoff spot with just two more weeks remaining in the regular season, Potvin said.

“Coming off a good win like this, if we have a good week of practice and continue to take this momentum that we’ve started to build moving forward, I think it will be a good result on Thursday,” Potvin said. “I think it will be a big test for us in that this is a team we can beat and move up in the standings against, and we are looking for them to step up in a big way and hopefully we can do that.”

— Contact Cameron Dunbar at 282-1535, Ext. 323.