BIDDEFORD — The stage was set at the Biddeford Ice Arena for Scarborough to pick up a game on the No. 1 team in the Class A South boys hockey standings.
Unfortunately for the Red Storm, the first-place Biddeford Tigers weren’t going to let some adversity slow them down on Saturday afternoon.
Biddeford was missing head coach Jason Tremblay and starting goalie Justin Larnerd, but the Tigers would step up on their home ice and pick up a hard-fought 3-2 victory.
Trevor Ouellette scored twice and Colin Petit dished out three assists to help the Tigers improve to 10-3 and tighten their grasp on the region’s top seed.
“It’s huge. It puts us, not locked in, but we’re pretty secure in first (in Class A South),” said Petit.
Scarborough’s Patrick Clonan scored early in the contest to put the Red Storm up 1-0.
Biddeford turned things around thanks to a strong power play.

The first opportunity came midway through the first and the Tigers would cash in when Petit hit Ouellette, who beat the Scarborough goalie to tie things up.
A cross-checking call on Scarborough late in the first would give the Tigers another chance — and once again it was Petit and Ouellette making the Red Storm pay with 48 seconds left in the opening period.
“We switched our power play up a little bit and I told them I thought it would come down to special teams. We clicked on our first two power plays and we’re up 2-1. Hats off to our power play. The guys were really moving the puck and did a good job,” said Biddeford coach Trevor Fleurent, who was filling in for Tremblay.
The Tigers went up 3-1 in the second period thanks to a breakaway goal from Nick Reissfelder.
Biddeford would take the two-goal advantage into the third period — and freshman goalie Deryk Boles would be tasked with holding the lead.
“It was really hard. Heart pumping, really nervous, don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Boles, who was starting his second straight game for the Tigers.
Scarborough would really get Boles’ heart pumping when Cameron Budway scored under a minute into the third period to cut the Tigers’ lead to 3-2.
Boles and the Biddeford D would step up in the final 14 minutes — including stopping a Scarborough power play late in the contest.
One of the biggest plays for the Tigers came from senior Trenton Ouellette, who sacrificed his body — technically, his face — to stop a shot with just over two minutes left.
“Coach just told us to block shots and we all started blocking shots. In the third period I took one right in the jaw. We just executed and we obviously wanted to win for coach (Tremblay),” said Trenton Ouellette.
Fleurent wasn’t surprised to see the senior defenseman step up.
“It’s awesome. Trenton is one of our senior captains and that’s the leadership he brings to the team,” Fleurent said.
Scarborough had one final chance, but Boles snatched the puck out of the air with 18 seconds left to lock up the victory.
“He was huge. He came up in some key moments with some big saves when we needed him and that’s all you can ask for. He got the call and he definitely answered for us,” said Fleurent.

Petit was impressed with his young teammate.
“He played good. He stood in there well and made a lot of key saves at the end of the day,” said Petit, who knew it was important for the rest of the team to help Boles out. “We were laying out. I mean Trenton’s diving for pucks, taking them off the head.”
Fleurent, who is a former Biddeford High and University of New England standout, was thrilled to step up and lead the Tigers to the win.
“Jason has been doing a good job molding me to be ready for when this happens. Jason couldn’t be here today, but he was more than confident in me to get the job done,” said Fleurent, who was with the Maine Mariners for training camp this year. “I trust the guys in that room to step up to the plate and they met that task tonight and we got a big W.”
Fleurent gave plenty of credit to volunteer assistant coach Tom Gildersleeve.
“We had been teammates for a couple years, so me and Tom have good chemistry. I could trust Tom to run the forwards tonight and I more or less ran the D. I was just happy with the way things worked out,” said Fleurent.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.