HALLOWELL — A strong second period and even better goaltending from Michael Poirier late proved to be enough to lift the Gardiner Area High School hockey team to a 5-2 win over Greely Saturday night at the Camden National Bank Ice Vault.

Even still, after the game the Tigers — who added a pair of empty netters in the final 90 seconds of the game to open it up — felt they still had better in them.

“We’re doing good right now but there’s a lot of room to improve,” said junior Jake Folsom, who had a goal and two assists in the win. “We need to start skating in the first and come prepared.”

A slow start cost Gardiner (2-2-0 Class B South) in the opening period after Greely’s Owen McIntyre recovered a turnover just inside the Tigers’ blue line and fired a shot on net. Poirier was there for the save but could not cajole the rebound, where the Rangers’ Jackson Williams was waiting for the put-back goal.

The Tigers trailed 1-0 heading into the second but wasted little time in tying the game. Reid Cotnoir lifted the puck into the top, right corner of the net from the near side 3:40 into the period just a few moments after hitting the post on shot from the point to tie it at 1-1.

Folsom — who picked up an assist on the score — would be on the receiving end of the go-ahead goal a little over four minutes later. Cotnoir skated into the Greely (1-4-0 Class B South) defensive zone along the left boards and dropped off a pass behind to Folsom, who in turn skated towards the net before finally ripping a shot into the top, right corner past Rangers goalie Joe MacDonald.

The eventual game-winner would once again be set up by Folsom, this time with the Tigers on the power play. Folsom sent a pass from behind the goal to Tristen Hebert, who patiently drifted from left to right before finding an opening and firing a shot on net to make it 3-1 Gardiner with 1:12 to play in the second period.

“We’ve been playing for a while with each other,” Folsom said, “and it’s finally just clicking.”

Greely still made sure to make the Tigers sweat it out despite their two-goal advantage, as the Rangers cut the deficit in half when McIntyre tipped in a shot from just outside the right circle from Adam Rost with 4:50 to play in the game.

Gardiner faced the greatest challenge to its lead with 3:37 remaining in the contest when Hebert was whistled for roughing to put the Rangers on the power play. Greely got a number of promising shots on net but each time Poirier was up for the task. The junior goalie made half of his 28 saves in the final period.

“We’re lucky we’ve got Michael between the pipes because he saved our butt a few times,” Gardiner coach Sam Moore said. “We count on him for that, too. He’s huge.”

Cam Bigelow scored an empty-netter 16 seconds after the power play expired to seal the win, and Hebert added another with 39.2 seconds remaining for good measure.

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley