WATERVILLE — No overtime goal. No late third-period dramatics. No wild, 45-minute flurry of end-to-end action.

Instead, Wednesday night’s rematch of last season’s Class B state championship hockey game was a thorough, clinical 5-0 win for Waterville over Yarmouth at Colby College’s Alfond Rink. Senior left wing Jackson Aldrich scored twice for the unbeaten Purple Panthers (3-0-0) in a three-point night, while junior defenseman Chase Wheeler added a goal and two assists.

Waterville, the highest scoring team in the state with 30 goals already this season, scored twice in the second period and twice more in the third against a Clippers team (1-2-1) that coughed up nine goals one night earlier in a lopsided loss to Falmouth.

“We didn’t really want to make a statement. You come in and play the opponent in front of you,” Waterville coach Dennis Martin said. “We knew there was obviously a lot on this being the state championship last year. We wanted to come out and get started quick and play our game.”

Where last March’s state title game between Waterville and Yarmouth saw the Purple Panthers force overtime with a third-period strike, and then win their 21st state title off the stick of Andrew Roderigue in double-overtime, Wednesday’s game simply saw Waterville mash the gas pedal to the floor from the opening face-off and never let up.

“For us, we just tried to come out the way we did in the state game and play as hard as we can and do as much as we can to complete the job,” Aldrich said. “We’re always ready to go, and when we get out there we play our game and do what we do.”

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How good were the Panthers? They outshot Yarmouth 45-15 for the game, had the Clippers chasing the puck throughout the night and even produced more scoring chances shorthanded (four) than Yarmouth did on the power play (three).

All three lines contributed at least one goal for Waterville, while the second defensive pairing — led by Wheeler — also got itself on the scoresheet.

“It was a good game. We were just skating hard the entire time,” Wheeler said. “Both teams were playing really physical. As a team, we played really well.”

The Purple Panthers got off to a flying start, pushing the pace and forcing the Clippers to make quick decisions all over the ice. The energy paid off in the form of an early goal from Aldrich just 1:38 into the contest, after the winger took a feed from Justin Wentworth at the attacking blue line and deked onto his forehand for an easy goal and 1-0 lead.

The second goal Waterville probably deserved in the period never materialized, however, as Yarmouth netminder Dan Latham (40 saves) made a number of tremendous stops in the period. He turned aside an Aldrich bid and got enough of a glove on a Roderigue slapper from the top of the left circle to keep that from going in.

Meanwhile, Waterville goalie Nathan Pinnette (15 saves), though not overworked, was equally solid at the opposite end of the ice. At the 10-minute mark, the Clippers put their first sustained pressure of the night on the Panthers with Pinnette stopping Chris Romano from point-blank range in the high slot and then sticking his left pad out to get a piece of a redirected follow-up shot from the point.

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Waterville rolled back into the second frame in much the way they’d ended the first, and the Panthers finally produced the desired results.

Aldrich scored his second of the night — and sixth of the season — from low in the right circle, tipping home Wheeler’s bid from the near point while battling traffic at the 4:28 mark. Four minutes later, Waterville’s propensity for controlling face-offs produced a third goal when third-line center Anthony Pinnette won an offensive zone draw straight back to Wheeler at the right point. Freshman Zach Menoudarakos was stationed on top of the crease to sweep home Wheeler’s rebound for a 3-0 lead.

The goal was the first of Menoudarakos’ career.

“We’re a little more inexperienced (this year) in certain areas of the ice,” Yarmouth coach David St. Pierre said. “We definitely have some guys who haven’t played big minutes for us yet, and they’re learning.”

“We had a lot of chances, and their goalie made a lot of nice saves,” Martin said. “It’s just guys being unselfish. We knew they’d played (Tuesday) night, too, so we wanted to get off to a quick start. That was the game plan.”

Wheeler and Cody Pellerin scored goals just 23 seconds apart midway through the third period to seal the Waterville victory.

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“That’s the type of team we’re going to have to be this year,” St. Pierre said of his Clippers having to grow as the season goes. “We got out to a fast start last year with a lot of senior leadership. I think this year’s a little different for us.”

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC


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