WINSLOW — The Cony High School hockey team finally returned to action after a week-long hiatus since beating Gardiner.
And while there was residual rust, particularly early, the Rams did enough to skate past Skowhegan 2-0 in an Eastern A game Saturday at Sukee Arena.
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“A win is a win, and we’ll take it,” Cony coach Chad Foye said. “But we need to play better. We didn’t put the effort in that we need to be consistent. We played well in spurts but not for 45 minutes. I’m happy with the win, but if we want to get to where we want to go, we have to play better.”
Aaron Manter and Dallas Clark each scored unassisted goals to lead the Rams (6-3-0), who last played Jan. 14 in a 4-3 win over Gardiner.
Matt Swan earned the shutout with 19 saves.
“It was a good win,” Clark said. “We still have to bear down. We have to bury our chances.”
Added Swan: “We got a win, which is important, but we didn’t bury them. We couldn’t put them away.”
Goalie Kyle Carrier had 22 saves for Skowhegan (3-5-2), whose winless streak stretched to five games.
The Indians have scored just seven goals in their last five games (0-4-1).
“They got one fluky goal and one sharp angle goal,” Skowhegan coach Jeff Fowler said. “We deserved better. (Cony) came out flying in the first period and their forecheck was effective. They bottled us up and out-played us. But it was even in the second and third periods. They never had our energy.”
The Rams scored the only goal they would need when Manter blasted a shot from the point that redirected off a Skowhegan player just 5 minutes, 21 seconds into the game.
Swan and a tough Cony defense did the rest, limiting shots and quality scoring chances the rest of the way.
“We didn’t get many quality chances,” Fowler said. “Maybe four or five. We just didn’t get the great chances we were looking for.”
Skowhegan did had a few opportunities in the second period to pull even. Swan made his best save of the game when he robbed Skowhegan sophomore Anthony Paul on a two-on-one break with 8:43 left in the period. Paul took a pass in the slot and had Swan down, but the Cony netminder still corralled the puck in his glove for the save.
“I was trying to get over and make a desperation save,” Swan said. “I just came up with the puck.”
Added Fowler: “It was a tremendous save. He took one away.”
The Indians also had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:32 later in the second period but struggled to generate any quality shots.
Clark doubled Cony’s lead just 2:37 into the third when he beat Carrier from the dot in the right circle with a low shot through traffic.
“I was just trying to put it on net,” Clark said. “You put it on net and good things happen. I shot it right on net and it went five-hole. I got lucky.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com
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