HALLOWELL — After losing three straight to begin the season, the Cony/Hall-Dale/Monmouth hockey team has turned a corner.

The Rams got two goals apiece from winger Jacob Godbout and defenseman Sam McFarlane en route to an 8-1 thumping of Lawrence/Skowhegan/MCI in Class A North game Saturday night at the Camden National Bank Ice Vault. Cony (3-4-0) has now won three of its last four games, while the Bandits dropped to 0-6-0, having not allowed fewer than eight goals in any game this season.

Senior winger Reed Hopkins was a catalyst for the the Rams. He had four assists, including helpers on both of Godbout’s goals as well as one on a score for Tyrell Sousa, the third member of Cony’s top line.

“It’s nice to be able to move the puck around the ice like that,” said Cony coach Shawn Johnson, whose team was off for 10 days over the holiday break. “They created some opportunities for a couple pretty goals. It’s nice to see. I know they can do it. I know they have it in them.”

McFarlane’s two goals were similarly important. With senior defenseman Joe Arps out after suffering a concussion in a win over Mt. Ararat, McFarlane bumped up to the top pairing alongside Zach Whitney.

“I like how we moved the puck,” said McFarlane, who registered his first career two-goal game. “Some of the guys that haven’t played as much are stepping up, and they’re definitely proving they can bring an element to our team. We had lots of lines out there contributing, so it was a good win.”

Lawrence/Skowhegan/MCI cut an early two-goal deficit to one when Avery Gosselin scored to make it a 2-1 game with eight and a half minutes left in the second period, but Cony answered with a shorthanded finish from Godbout and McFarlane’s first of the night before the intermission.

For a team missing two defenseman — Joshua Hutchins was injured on a cross-check in the first period and Cam Littlefield was hurt during a youth game earlier in the day — it became another tough hill for the Bandits to climb.

They finished the game with only 13 healthy players.

“It’s the depth,” Lawrence/Skowhegan/MCI coach Gordon Small said. “The kids get gassed…It’s a matter of getting the basics back.”

Cony scored four times in the final period against freshman goalie Adrian O’Connell (29 saves), including its final three goals in a 61-second span before the midway point of the frame.

“I feel for Lawrence/Skowhegan,” Johnson said of going deep into his lineup with third and fourth lines aplenty against the Bandits. “I’ve been there, and it’s a tough road. I wanted to be able to play everybody and not roll them, because I know what it’s like to be on the other end of that. It’s not fun.

“I give them a ton of credit.”

Whitney, Elijah Bezanson and Collin Osborne also had goals in the Cony win. Matty Shea stopped eight shots.

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC