PORTLAND — Not that his Thornton Academy hockey career has been completed just yet.

But Alex Howard played what is likely his best game ever in Maroon and Gold, thus far, and it could hardly have come at a bigger time.

The swift-skating senior center registered his first three-goal hat trick while spurring his Golden Trojan mates to a rousing 5-3 triumph over their ancient rivals from Biddeford, before a crowd of about 1,000 at the Civic Center.

Howard’s linemate, team captain Peter Remmes, scored one goal and set up another as he played his first game of the year after recuperating from a football injury.

“I’ve been playing with Pete most of my life,” said Howard. “I know how he works and what he does. Most of my life, he keeps getting the puck up to me. I get a shot on net and he gets the rebound. The kid is around the net, 24/7.”

Then there was goaltender Ricky Hebb, who stopped 39 Tiger shots and gave the Trojans all the breathing room they needed to hand Biddeford (12-2) just its second loss of the season.

Thornton is now 11-2-1, with one of its losses having been the 3-2 heartstopper that Biddeford won in the last minute Jan. 9.

There were no such dramatics this time around, at least not after the Trojans snapped a 2-2 tie with three straight goals, two of them by Howard.

“We showed some character,” said Remmes. “Some determination and grit. That shows what kind of team we are.”

For one thing, they showed they can shrug off some adversity, the variety that comes with surrendering a two-goal lead.

Having taken a 2-0 margin into the second period, Thornton was knocked backwards when the Tigers scored twice, once on Derek Reny’s shorthander, the other on Eric Grover’s power-play goal at 10:59, knotting the score at 2-2.

“It’s always a good game when you play Biddeford,” said Remmes. “They’re a good team, and second period, they came out hard. But we matched their intensity.”

It showed, and quickly.

Thornton regained the lead 1:34 later, when Howard squeezed in his second goal of the contest while the Trojans operated on a power play.

Nick Chen and Howard, again tallied early in the third, making it 5-2.

“Obviously, our zone was a disappointment,” said Biddeford coach Rich Reissfelder. “We needed to do a much better job of picking up guys. Of getting the puck out while we had the chance. I lost track of how many times we had a chance to break out, and the wing wasn’t in position. Turnover, turnover, turnover. Even though we outshot them [42-26], they had better chances, and they finished them.”

Trevor Fleurent’s tip in of a Nick Gagne point shot capped the scoring for Biddeford with 1:13 to play.

The contest had originally been scheduled to be played at Biddeford Ice Arena, the home rink for both teams.

However, it was moved to the Civic Center in anticipation of a large crowd.

“It turned out to be the right decision,” said Gary Stevens, the athletic director for Thornton, which served as the home team. “We would have had to turn people away.”

Both teams will return to BIA, Saturday, with Thornton set to welcome Kennebunk at 4:30 p.m., while the Tigers will host Lewiston at 8:30 p.m.

— Contact Staff Writer Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.