Biddeford, ME – The final two games of today’s action at the Biddeford Ice Arena in the Maine High School Hockey Invitational tournament went to the visiting teams with Ridgefield High School (CT) playing their first game of the tournament, they’d beat York by a big margin, winning 10-1. In the final game of the evening, Kennett High School (NH) took on Kennebunk in a much closer game, winning 5-2.

Both of the visiting teams seemed excited to be a part of the tournament and to have the opportunity to travel and to see some different teams who they would normally not be paired up against. This was the first year that Ridgefield has participated in the tournament, and for them it meant a five hour drive up from Ridgefield, Conn, a town located in Fairfield County, and two nights in a hotel for only two games.

“So far it’s obvious that a lot of people put in a lot of work here because it’s run very smoothly,” said Ridgefield head coach Shaun Gallagher. “A lot of teams are in it so it’s good for the kids to come up here and see a lot of different games, a lot of different teams, good competition, good quality, it seems to be very good.”

For some of the teams in the tournament, the games are countable towards their record, for others, these games are strictly exhibition. Ridgefield’s tournament games are being counted toward their record, and they came out tonight playing for the win, taking a commanding 8-0 lead in the first period.

The second period passed by scoreless, and Ridgefield scored two more in the third. York’s Dillon Dellapasqua spoiled the shutout for Ridgefield, scoring the lone goal for his team with a wrist shot to the top corner of the net in the third period.

York coach Michael Vessey didn’t seem too bothered by the loss as this was an exhibition game for them. “It gives us a chance to make line changes, play kids at positions they don’t normally play, to experiment a little because it doesn’t count on our regular season record. Tonight for instance, we started our back-up goalie despite the fact that we knew Richfield was going to be a good offensive team.”

Kennett High school was playing their second game of the day against Kennebunk, coming off a tough 7-1 loss to Tewksbury High (MA) earlier in the day.

The two teams skated evenly for the first half of the game, tied 2-2 in the second period, until Kennett scored a power play goal to shift the momentum in their favor. Kennebunk took a tripping penalty and Kennett scored 13 seconds into the power play. Before Kennebunk could regain their composure, Kennett added another goal shortly after to give them a 4-2 lead heading into the third.

Kennebunk was not without scoring chances, passing the puck well in the offensive zone and setting up each other nicely and getting good shots, but unfortunately not able to beat Kennett goaltender Jonny Parkhurst. Kennebunk would pull their goaltender for the extra skater with 1:06 in the game to try to give them an offensive boost, but gave up an empty-netter with 8.6 seconds left on the clock.

This is the second year that Kennett High School has competed in the MHHI tournament, and head coach Michael Lane plans to keep it an annual event for them in the future.

“Certainly as long as they’re doing it I would foresee us coming back. I know it’s a lot of hard work, this many teams in this many rinks, they do a fantastic job and we’re really excited to be here every year. It’s a fun event to be a part of.”