An end to the winter sports season is near, but not before the varsity hockey team battles their way through playoffs, starting with their quarterfinal game this week on Wednesday, March 1 against the Old Town/Orono Black Bears. The Wildcats entered the game in third place with a 12-6 regular season record, and Old Town/Orono came into the game in sixth place with a 5-12 record.

The Wildcats beat the Black Bears 7-3, but the way they played wasn’t the only thing that helped them to victory. “The crowd last night played a huge role in our win because our team feeds off the electricity of the crowd,” said the senior captain Dawson Kinney. “I love going to the games and cheering on my friends. It’s a great feeling knowing your buddies are out there best to beat their opponent,” said Grant Stubbs ’24. “And it’s even better when they are successful doing it.” Besides cheering on the home team, our student section did a decent job distracting players on the other team, which is what is fun about a student section at a home game. “And I’m pretty sure we did a good job, since we won by four goals,” added Stubbs.

The goal scorers of Wednesday’s game were Issac Staples ’25, Breygan Mahan ’23, Ethan Carlisle ’23, Logan Sherman ’23, and Dawson Kinney with three goals. The Wildcats will go on to play against Messalonskee in the semi-final match this Saturday at Colby College at 1:30 pm. Messalonskee is the two seed with a record of 15-2-1. Messalonskee beat Gardiner in the quarterfinals. Gardiner was most recently in last place in the playoffs with a record of 6-12.