BRAMPTON, ON – Connor LaCouvee made 27 saves while four different Mariners scored goals in a complete team effort and a 4-0 win over the Brampton Beast on Sunday afternoon at the CAA Centre. It was Maine’s 20th win of the season, and the fourth time they picked up at least a point in the last five games of a grueling eight game in ten day stretch.
It took over 15 minutes for the first goal of the game to be scored, but at 15:49, Brandon Crawley worked out of the right wing corner and put a shot off the post and behind Beast goalie Andrew D’Agostini for a 1-0 Mariners lead. Greg Chase and Alex Kile assisted. Kile helped set up the second goal just use two minutes later as the Mariners worked on the power play. Kile gloved Brampton’s attempted clear through the middle and found Sean Day for a one-timer from the right wing circle to double the Maine advantage. The Mariners outshot Brampton 10-8 in the first and skated out of it with the 2-0 lead.
The Mariners once again put up a pair of goals in the second period. Jake Elmer extended the lead to 3-0 at 9:58 as he worked an impressive 2-on-2 rush into the offensive zone alongside Ryan Culkin. Then, at 14:51, Ted Hart buried a rebound off the pad of D’Agostini, created by a Ty Ronning shot to make it 4-0, which was the score through two.
The Mariners penalty kill helped LaCouvee complete the shutout, going 5-for-5 in the game. It was the second shutout of the season for the Mariners – both by LaCouvee, also his second in less than a month (December 28th at Worcester). D’Agostini turned aside 18 of 22 Maine shots to suffer the loss. The Mariners jumped two points ahead of idle Adirondack for fourth place in the North Division, still possessing three games in hand.
After playing eight games in a ten day span, the Mariners will be off until Friday for the All-Star break. Their next game is home on Friday, January 24th for Star Wars night, against the Worcester Railers at 7:15 p.m.
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