Scarborough’s Matt Caron hashed two goals and an assist, and Sean McGovern a goal and two assists, as the No. 4 Red Storm downed No. 2 Cheverus 5-2 in the A West Regional Final last Tuesday night at Lewiston’s Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The win earned Scarborough a berth in Saturday’s State Championship, a shot at East reps St. Dominic’s Academy in Auburn that the Storm capitalized on – though it took them till double-OT to do so. McGovern grabbed the game-winner on a breakaway in the waning seconds to clinch the W and Scarborough’s first-ever Class A crown.

Scarborough closes a remarkable year at 14-5-2. The team is quite green overall; head coach Norm Gagne has maintained as much throughout the season, and the players know it as well.

“For us to do what we did, with a young group like this,” Gagne said. “I’m just ecstatic. This is like a miracle season for them. I told the kids, they go up, No. 1, on my championship list, because I never expected to be here. I knew we could battle, but I never expected to battle with the big boys.” The title is Gagne’s seventh in 30-plus years of coaching.

“We had such a young team this year,” McGovern, a senior, said. “I don’t think people realize that. And those sophomores and juniors, they’ve stepped up for us huge this year.

“If someone had told us we were going to win a state championship this year, I would’ve just been like, ‘That’s crazy.’”

“The progression of this team was nothing like I’ve ever seen in my hockey career,” said Ben Bragg, Scarborough’s goalie and another of its six seniors. “Such a young team. They all stepped up tremendously. We made a heck of a team this year.”

Moreover, the Storm’s path through the playoffs was no frolic. Of the four teams they faced, three – Biddeford, Cheverus and St. Dom’s – had beaten them in the regular season; the only squad they had to scythe through who hadn’t previously done them in was actually the No. 1 seed, mighty Falmouth.

REGIONAL FINAL

The Storm looked like they might run away with Tuesday’s Regional Final; they got on the board early, and proceeded to build. Caron from McGovern put them on top 1-0, four minutes in. Then, six minutes later, on the powerplay, Caron, from McGovern again, as well as Kevin Smith, put them up 2-0.

“At the beginning of the game, we came out ready to focus,” Caron, a junior, said. “We were getting pucks below the goal line, and that set up our forecheck; we were hitting the high guy in the slot all game. We got so many shots in the slot. We had a couple chances to make it 4-0, and it was unfortunate that goalie made a couple good saves. We could’ve really put it away.”

Junior Colin Hayward made it 3-0 at 12:05 of the second. Hayward’s shot from the left point slid through the mass of bodies out front of Stags goalie Kyle Severance and beat Severance left side for what would ultimately prove the winning point. Even though Cheverus notched two of their own as intermission approached, they couldn’t keep up their comeback momentum in the third.

Severance’s dash off the ice with under a minute to play gave his team an extra attacker – but it also opened up his cage for both McGovern and Cam Nigro, who added empty-netters for a 5-2 final.

“They came back, fought hard, got a couple goals back,” Caron said. “I think it was a little fatigue; we were banged up. We started playing a little more defensively, which we can’t do. We’ve gotta keep piling on. In the end, it was really our goalie, Ben, who made the difference. He played fantastic all game.”

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Saturday’s State bout – at the risk of gushing, a magnificently taut spectacle – rolled back and forth over the ice from start to finish. The teams traded swift incursions as their attacks repeatedly broke away only to be stymied at the last moment by a dogged defender or nigh-impenetrable goalie.

St. Dom’s applied their offensive tonnage early. The Saints racked up six shots, to Scarborough’s one, in the first two and a half minutes, but Bragg – arguably Maine’s single best netminder – remained perfect throughout the assault.

“I was holding my breath,” said Gagne. “It was scary.”

“First period, they were coming at us,” Bragg said. “I was like, ‘This is gonna be a battle. I just have to keep on my game mode.’ I was definitely in it.”

“Ben, he stood on his head today,” said McGovern. “We wouldn’t be anywhere this year without Benny. He’s always keeping his calm when it’s a lot of pressure.”

Still, St. Dom’s persisted, and their determination (plus a share of luck) soon bedeviled Bragg. Roughly seven minutes in, the squads lined up in Scarborough’s zone for a faceoff. The Saints’ Caleb Labrie won the puck, which slipped onto Brad Berube’s stick; Berube knocked a trickler of a shot Bragg’s way, and it somehow sidled through his five-hole for 1-0.

The action ricocheted from end to end for another six minutes before the Storm did their first damage of the night. Lingering low-right, Skylar Pettengill blasted a lightning-quick rebound past St. Dom’s keeper Kyle Welsh at 1:55 to even the tally at 1-1 off Caron and Nigro assists.

“That was huge,” McGovern said. “Skylar, he’s worked hard this year. He actually filled in for me on that shift; I was gassed. He finished when he needed to. It was great to see Skylar do that.”

The score remained knotted through the ensuing 50 minutes – the remainder of regulation plus the majority of two eight-minute, sudden-death OTs. Both sides continued to generate thrilling opportunities, but those uniformly ended in groans from one half of the bleachers, sighs of relief from the other, and frustration across the ice.

Caron on the breakaway, for instance, threw a hard shot just wide with 45 seconds to play in the first; St. Dom’s immediately answered, managing to squeeze two narrow misses in before the break – and so on.

“Everybody had chances,” Gagne said. “It just came down to – both goaltenders played unbelieveable. Both teams played their hearts out.”

Not until the game had pitched into the depths of double-OT, and every butt in the packed arena had inched to the edge of its hard wooden chair, did a winner finally emerge. With under 30 seconds to play, McGovern picked up the puck near the St. Dom’s blue line and escaped his Saints coverage for a one-on-one with Welsh.

It wasn’t McGovern’s first duel with Welsh in the game…but it would be his last. He faked Welsh out and flipped the puck past him backhand to grab the goal, the win, the trophy, the glory – the whole shebang. 2-1 the final.

“I saw the puck go out in the neutral zone,” McGovern said. “I knew that if I just skated and used my speed, I’d break away from the defenders. Earlier in the game, I pulled the same move on the goalie – backhand – and I figured, ‘He’s not going to think I’m gonna go backhand again. He’s going to think I’m gonna go the opposite.’ It’s a mind game.

“I usually do go backhand, and I figured, ‘Ah, should I shoot it, or just go backhand again and he’ll slide over?’ And I just decided to go backhand again.

“I just threw my stick up in the air. I think I just kept saying ‘Oh, my God,’ over and over again. I couldn’t believe it; it was such a good feeling.”

“How far we’ve come throughout the year; it’s incredible. We’ve worked so hard for this and I’m so happy for the guys in the locker room.”

The Scarborough Red Storm boys hockey team pose with their Class A state championship trophy after Saturday’s 2-1 win over East representatives St. Dominic Academy in Auburn.The on-ice Red Storm – including Skylar Pettingill (16) – bump fists with their brothers on the bench after Pettingill’s game-tying goal late in the first period of Saturday’s state championship versus St. Dom’s.Scarborough defenseman Eric Murray keeps just ahead of a St. Dom’s attacker through the corner on Saturday.Storm center Jack Callahan faces off with St. Dom’s Austin Roy in Saturday’s State Final.Scarborough’s Braeden Kane (24) swaps hugs with teammate Matt Caron after the team’s state championship victory over St. Dom’s on Saturday.Scarborough’s Matt Caron wends through heavy Cheverus defense in last Tuesday’s A West Final.Scarborough’s Sean McGovern keeps one stride ahead of his Cheverus coverage in last Tuesday’s A West Final.Cam Nigro picks up the puck with the blade of his stick on the attack versus Cheverus last Tuesday.