Maine Gladiators open national tournament with first loss of the season

The Maine Gladiators 16U team no longer has a perfect record.

After a 24-game winning streak during the fall, the Gladiators opened the USA Hockey Tier II 16U 2A National Tournament on Wednesday at Children's Health Star Center Plano in Plano, competing against the Southwest of the Wisconsin Elite Hockey League. The team lost 4-1. , Texas.

Gladiators coach Chris Pomerleau said his team had an unfortunate break early on that changed the face of the game.

“The goal was canceled and the whole team dynamic changed,” Pomerleau said. “It was 0-0, but a goal that would have been 1-0 was canceled out. The whole change in the play, not scoring and[soon afterwards]being in the box and man down. It just broke us down mentally.”

After a scoreless first period, WEHL Southwest took a 2-0 lead in the second period. Blake Horn scored the first goal early in the period, and Landen Starr and Drew Apicella had assists.

Landon Burke scored his second goal 4:05 into the game, stealing the puck past Maine goaltender Gabe Pomerleau.

Sabatas and North Yarmouth Academy's Deegan Nadeau scored the Gladiators' power-play goals early in the third to cut the lead to 2-1. For Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester, Brody Emond and Breck Langevin each had an assist.

“Just as we were getting back into shape, there was another power play and we got a retaliatory penalty,'' Chris Pomerleau said. “That got us even. We made another mental mistake and were down for five minutes (for a man). That put us in a bind.”

Chris Pomerleau, head coach of the Maine Gladiators 16U Tier II team, works through a drill with his players during practice at Norwegian Savings Bank Arena in Auburn on March 21. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

WEHL Southwest took a 4-1 lead with Owen Horne and Ian Bass scoring in the third.

Apicella scored Bass' third goal of the game.

The Gladiators were 1-for-7 on the power play, while WEHL Southwest was 1-for-6.

“A lot happened on the power play. The puck was moving well,” Chris Pomerleau said. “Their goalie was great. They didn't have enough people in front of the net, took their eyes off the goalie, and had a lot of low-probability shots on the power play.”

Mason Kelm stopped 32 of 33 shots in the win. Gabe Pomerleau stopped 24 shots.

The Gladiators will continue playing pool on Thursday, taking on the Atlanta Fire at 4:15 p.m.

“Controlling your emotions when things don't go your way is going to be very important tomorrow,” Chris Pomerleau said. “Things don't go our way, right? We need to change it and move in the right direction. We need to forget this game and win the next two games to be in this game.”