WINSLOW — The Winslow boys hockey team is working to make sure that it will be on its home ice for at least the bulk of the Eastern B playoffs.

The Black Raiders (9-4-0) took another step toward that goal Wednesday night, although it certainly turned into a far more difficult leap than at first expected.

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Winslow saw a five-goal advantage get cut to one early in the third period at Sukee Arena only to finish the game with three unanswered scores in an 8-4 victory over Brewer (7-5-2).

“(The game got) way more interesting but it happens,” senior Alex Berard, who finished with a hat trick, said. “…At the end of the day it was a good win.”

The victory moves Winslow into second place in the division for the time being, yet Waterville (8-4-0), Brewer, Hampden (6-9-0) and John Bapst (9-3-0) all remain in the hunt for the No. 2 seed. Messalonskee (12-1-0) has all but wrapped up the top spot in Eastern B, but since they also call Sukee Arena home the second seed would be as good as the top spot for the Black Raiders.

“That’s what we’re after. We’re after that No. 2,” Winslow coach Andy Dube said. “Other teams want it as well and (Brewer) is one of them.

“We have a big one on Saturday against John Bapst, they’re in the mix as well. Same thing could happen to them so we’re going to go up there and play with the amount of fire and energy that we played with (Wednesday).”

According to Berard, that added pressure of playing a big game every night for the remainder of the season has added an extra layer of excitement in the locker room.

“It just builds the intensity. It gets the guys going a lot better,” Berard said. “They see the big game coming and they get more fired up in the locker room, they come ready to play and we get good starts like that. We just have to figure out what to do in the middle and try to keep it going the whole 45 minutes.”

The middle was not so much the problem as the end was Wednesday night, as two goals from Jacob Trask and one each from Jimmy Fowler, Jake Larsen and Berard allowed the Black Raiders to build a 5-0 lead 3 minutes, 38 seconds into the second period.

The advantage would not last though, as Gabe Valley’s goal with 5:17 left in the period cut the deficit to 5-1. Valley was then assessed a tripping penalty with 54 seconds remaining in the second, but 30 seconds later Jacob Grenier was tagged for a 5-minute penalty for boarding.

“It didn’t seem like a huge penalty at first but it did haunt us,” Dube said. “(It) wouldn’t go away and hung on for a long time and they capitalized on it. It almost turned the game around.”

Trey Wood scored a 4-on-4 goal 25 seconds into the third and a little over 90 seconds later Zach Duncan struck with a power play goal to cut the deficit to 5-3. Winslow managed to kill off the remainder of the penalty, but the Witches kept coming.

Duncan netted another score with 9:14 left off a rebound to make it a single-goal game, leading Dube to call a timeout and settle his team.

“We regrouped, gathered together and they picked it up after that and played some good hockey,” Dube said.

Berard quickly answered for the Black Raiders, scoring off an assist from Nick West just 31 seconds after the Winslow timeout. From there the Black Raiders made sure to finish off the win, as Berard and Jacob Houghton scored a pair of goals 24 seconds apart beginning at the 6:44 mark of the third.

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley

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