It was cold outside and not much warmer inside the Penobscot Ice Arena in Brewer on Saturday afternoon. But Class B North leading Hampden Academy stayed hot, defeating the Kennebec Riverhawks 7-0 behind three goals and four points from Broncos assistant captain Cooper Leland.
HA lit the lamp three times in the first period with Khaleb Hales opening tally and game winner at 5:26 of the first period. Cameron Henderson and Cooper Leland got in on the scoring with the assists.
24 seconds later, Cooper Leland recorded his first goal of the game on a pass from Michael Delahanty. Leland found the back of the net a little over five and half minutes later at 11:31 on an unassisted goal.
The second period had a slowdown in the scoring with the only goal coming from Morgan Tash taking the feed from Cameron Henderson at 4:29 to give the Broncos a 4-0 lead.
Hampden Academy head coach Eric MacDonald’s team came out of the intermission hungry when Cooper Leland got the hat trick on an unassisted play at 1:26 of the 3rd period.
Khaleb Hale tallied his second of the game on an assist by Owen Cross to extend it to a 6-0 advantage for the Broncos.
The scoring was capped off by a John Vickery goal at 6:07 of the 3rd period on a dish from Parker Shawley.
Bronco Goalie Cooper Ryan.
Hampden Academy went on a 5-3 power play in the 3rd period but soon thereafter got called on a penalty. Soon after Kennebec hit the two man advantage and challenged Bronco goalie Cooper Ryan, but weren’t able to crack the armor and get the puck into the net. Ryan turned away every shot he faced to earn the shutout.
The Broncos improved to 4-0-1 and sit atop the Class B North standings with nine points, while Kennebec falls to 0-4-0 in Class B North.
The Riverhawks will play at Old Town/Orono Saturday, December 28th at Alfond Arena in Orono, while Hampden Academy is off until the New Year when they play Capital Region on January 7th.
