PORTLAND — The No. 5 Thornton Academy boys hockey team topped No. 4 Portland/Deering 6-3 in the Class A South Quarterfinals on Wednesday, and were fueled by a hat trick performance from senior captain Chandler Bilodeau.

The Trojans held a 3-2 lead midway through the third period, but Portland/Deering would knot the score on a goal from Whitfield Steele with 6:42 remaining.

Bilodeau would go on to score twice in the next 90 seconds, followed by an empty-netter from Reagan Wintle to close out the win.

“We had a lot of kids that hadn’t played in the playoffs before so this is a big game for us. We played close games with Portland all year so we knew it was going to be tight, we knew it was a game we had to win. Everyone wanted it really (bad), so we just went out and took it,” said Bilodeau after the win. “I only have two playoff games under my belt so I was nervous coming into this one. To be able to produce three goals is pretty big.”

The Bulldogs got an early 1-0 lead in the first period from a Jacob Luce goal. The Trojans responded by getting goals from Bilodeau and Owen Dubois in the final two minutes to give TA the 2-1 advantage.

Dubois would score in the opening three minutes of the second period to extend the TA lead to 3-1, but Portland/Deering’s Mikia Silva answered with just 31 seconds remaining to make it 3-2 heading to the final period.

TA’s first line of Bilodeau, Dubois and Wintle had an impressive outing for the Trojans, accounting for all six goals and having strong showings on both ends of the ice.

“I’ve got nine seniors and seven of them play a lot. They wanted it and you could see that they wanted it in practice the last few days. This is what their goal is, I’ve got the first line and they got all six goals, they went out and executed,” said TA coach Michael Roux. “I told them to stay out of the penalty box and they did, they got the goals they needed.”

Bilodeau also credited the lines behind him, and was happy with the team’s mental toughness when the going got rough.

“It’s great. We had all lines working hard today, we got a lot of production from our first line,” said Bilodeau. “It was all the lines doing work, everyone contributed. We got three early and they started to come back and we got scared but our coach was telling us, ‘make sure to keep the momentum, make sure we don’t let off the gas.’”

The two clubs battled twice during the regular season and split the series. Each game came down to one goal, and Roux expected no different heading into Wednesday’s clash.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game. We played them twice and each was a one-goal game. I have all the respect in the world for (Portland/Deering) coach (Jeff) Beaney and his team, I always know that they’re going to work hard for 45 minutes and that’s what we got. The boys had to match their intensity and they did,” said Roux.

The Trojans will now head north to Lewiston to take on top-seeded Cheverus. Although the Trojans finished with just the fifth seed, Bilodeau is confident that the Trojans can compete with anyone.

“Throughout the season (we were) losing all of these one-goal games so our record didn’t really show how good we were. We just proved ourselves throughout the season,” said Bilodeau.

Roux is also proud of what the Trojans have accomplished, and also feels that TA has as good a shot as any to make it to the conference finals.

“It means a lot — that was our goal, to get to Lewiston,” said Roux. “We had little goals one at a time: To have a winning season, we (went) 11-7, to get a playoff game (and) now (we have) a playoff win. Now we go to Lewiston, we have high hopes for this team. We lost seven games by eight goals … we’re in every match.”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.