FALMOUTH — Biddeford’s worst loss of the season was on the minds of the Tigers as they faced Falmouth on Thursday at Family Ice Center. After falling to the Yachtsmen 6-0 earlier in the season, the Tigers put on a better performance in a 4-2 loss Thursday night.

“We (needed) to prove ourselves,” Biddeford senior captain Darcy Fisher said. “We played a really strong game against Cape Elizabeth last week, so we needed to prove ourselves to Falmouth, too.”

The second go-around looked a lot like the first early in the game. Biddeford goalie Cassie Ellis had to make a few miraculous saves to keep Falmouth from jumping on top early. Ellis made 48 saves in the first meeting, many of which were in the first period, and was tasked with the same challenge again.

But unlike the first meeting, Ellis couldn’t keep Falmouth from scoring in the first period. The Yachtsmen broke open the scoring with 26 seconds left in the first, when Lucy Meyer beat Ellis five-hole from the right side.

Falmouth didn’t have to wait long for their second goal, as freshman Martina St. Angelo scored just 52 seconds into the second period, making it 2-0 Falmouth.

Falmouth increased the lead to 3-0 midway through the period, bringing up bad memories of the first match-up. Abby Payson slipped the puck between Ellis’ skate and the left post at the 7:34 mark of the second period.

Unlike the first meeting, however, the Tigers would not be shut out. Fisher did what good captains do, and she put her team on her back to try and claw back into the game.

Fisher took control of the puck in her own defensive zone and brought it along the right boards. When she got inside the blue line, she let a shot rip that went through the legs of Falmouth goalie Hillary Nash.

“It was definitely just instinct. We knew we had to get it into the zone, and it happened to go in,” said Fisher.

“We were looking a little flat ”¦ and that goal, the captain came through. And she really lit a fire under her team,” Biddeford head coach Ashley Potvin said about Fisher’s goal.

Fisher was on the same wavelength as her coach about how the goal affected her team’s psyche.

“The goal fired us up a lot,” said Fisher. “And back in the locker room, we all talked and said that we really need to keep it up. We need to come out here and play as a unit, play as a team. And we definitely came out doing that and it showed.”

Potvin said she wasn’t surprised that Fisher was the player to put some life back into the Tigers, who were on the verge of five straight periods of not scoring against Falmouth.

“Her team really needed somebody on the ice to do something big to try to change that momentum, and she was the one to do it,” said Potvin.

That momentum didn’t come out of the locker room with the Tigers entering the third period, as they would quickly find out. Jayde Bazinet pushed home a goal from Meyer just 24 seconds into the third period.

Biddeford didn’t go down easily, though, as Tiffany Gagne scored on a bouncer from just inside the blue line with 5:32 to go.

In the end, it was another defeat to the Yachtsmen, who are just ahead of Biddeford in the standings, albeit by a large margin in the heal points. But Potvin was happy to see them put up more of a fight the second time around.

“It was really nice to see them come out and, not have a strong start, but to finish strong against a good team,” said Potvin.

Fisher said the team’s performance late in the game gave them a lot of confidence about how they can stack up against quality opponents. The Tiger captain said she thinks a third whack at Falmouth could bring a different outcome.

“We keep improving every day in practice and every day in games. We really have that fire in our hearts now. So I definitely think that we could come out beating them next time,” said Fisher.

— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323 or follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.