A hat trick by Craig Perham helped propel Thornton Academy past Westbrook 11-0 in their final tune up before the playoffs.

“We want to go to the state finals,” said backup goalie Chris Driscoll, who made 11 saves for the Trojans. “We want to win for the seniors.”

If they are able to play like this once the tournament starts, they should go a long way. Both teams came out in the first period playing well, but it wasn’t long before Thornton took control of the game.

The first several minutes were spent almost entirely in the Blue Blazes’ end. About six minutes into the opening frame, Perham scored his first goal on a breakaway to give his team the 1-0 lead.

Just 20 seconds later in front of the Westbrook net Aaron Hiltz shot was blocked but the rebound was stuffed through the five hole by Eric Donolin to give the Trojans a 2-0 lead.

Seventeen seconds after that, Dominic Cloutier flipped the puck over the glove of Blazes net minder Zachary Joy to make the score 3-0.

In a matter of about 30 seconds the game went from scoreless to a three-goal lead for Thornton and it started to look like the Trojans were going to put this one away early.

“It was a tough game,” said Joy. “We played hard but they’re a very good team.”

Perham would add another goal in the first period during a power play to send his team to the locker room up, 4-0. The Trojans notched 14 shots to six by Westbrook, with Thornton goalie Dan Laskey stopping them all.

“We played well, we passed well, skated hard and played clean,” said Cloutier.

In the second period the Trojans brought in Driscoll to play goal and picked up right where they left off in the first. With a two-man advantage due to a pair of Blazes’ penalties, Nick Laskey launched a slap shot that was turned away by Joy, only to be stuffed into the net by #6. Thornton picked up another goal just seconds later when a shot by Jacob Arenstam deflected off a Westbrook player’s arm and into the net for a 6-0 lead.

“They played harder and they were just better than us,” said Blazes forward Zachary Johnson.

Ryan Prescott scored unassisted while his team was shorthanded with four minutes to play in the period when his shot trickled across the goal line.

In the final minute of the second, Jake Ouellette made a crisp pass from the right face off circle to Andrew Lambert and his one-timer rippled the twine to put the Trojans up by a score of 8-0.

“We played a strong game,” said Driscoll. “We passed well and got a lot of opportunities to put the puck in the net.”

In the third, Westbrook brought in goalie Stas Basistyy to try to stop the onslaught. But just over a minute into the period, Jacob Scott scored goal number nine for the Trojans with a wrister from the right circle.

Halfway through the period, Perham completed his hat trick with a wrist shot of his own to help his team break double digits. The final goal of the night came while Thornton was down a man nearing the end of the game when Scott tallied his second goal for the 11-0 final.

With the regular season behind them, the Golden Trojans gear up for the tournament.

“Hopefully we’ll be the seventh seed,” said Thornton head coach Greg Cloutier. “We might be number eight and have to play in the preliminaries.”

Wherever TA falls in the seeding, they have a tough road ahead.

“We’re excited, we want to go to the civic center,” said Dominic Cloutier. “We’re going to have to play hard.”

As for the Blue Blazes, their season will end short of the playoffs but they are still looking ahead.

“We have one more game,” said Johnson. “We’re going to have to play tough and have fun and try to build for next year.”