WATERVILLE — The thought of not playing never crossed Cody Pellerin’s mind.
A freshman on the Waterville Senior High School boys hockey team, Pellerin scored a pair of goals Monday afternoon in a 6-3 victory over Brewer (6-3-2 Eastern A) at Colby College’s Alfond Ice Rink despite coping with the passing of his grandfather a day earlier.
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“This game, for me, is for my grandfather,” Pellerin said. “This game definitely helped me overcome what I’m still going through.”
For Pellerin and the Purple Panthers (7-4-0) Monday’s game was all about perseverance, as each time the Witches cut into Waterville’s lead the home team had an answer.
Waterville took a 2-0 advantage after the first period thanks to goals from Nick Dennis and Pellerin, but 44 seconds into the second Brewer’s Caleb Eggert scored to cut the deficit in half. The score remained as such until the final two minutes of the period when Dalton Henderson scored the first of his three goals with 1:55 left.
“Every time we get scored on or something bad happens to us we take that and build on it,” Henderson said. “We just work a lot harder because we want to come back from that.”
Those words would be tested early in the third, as Dylan Severance knocked home a rebound 4:57 into the final period to bring Brewer to within 3-2.
Once again, Waterville would have the answer though.
After an initial shot from Jackson Aldrich, Pellerin crashed the net for a rebound and cradled the puck for a moment before tucking it just inside the right post with 7:36 remaining. A little over two minutes later Henderson was the beneficiary of a great find from Michael Oliveira in transition, as he took a right to left pass and lifted the puck over the pads of a sprawled out Tyler Friel to more or less secure the Purple Panthers’ victory.
“Any type of change in momentum we swung it back on our side. We responded to everything that Brewer did,” Waterville coach Dennis Martin said. “We weren’t trying more than normal, we just did the little things, threw the puck on net, crashed the net and got those hard-nosed goals.
“This is a big win for us. They’re ranked No. 2 (in Eastern A) so now we’re just trying to get those Heal Points to get that home ice.”
The win — which comes on the heels of a 4-1 loss to Messalonskee — is the Purple Panthers’ first of the season against a team ahead of them in the standings.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday,com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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