Before the game and between periods, that was what Aaron Rand was stressing to his Poland/Gray-New Gloucester hockey team Wednesday.

Through numerous penalty kills, limited shots on goal and a short bench, the Patriotic Knights battled through and lived up to theme.

“I told them to be patient and cash in on our chances,” Rand said. “Finally we had a pretty good chance at the end.”

Just when it looked like an overtime tie would be a positive result for the Patriots, Nevin Rand finished off a three-on-one to lift the Patriots to a 1-0 victory over Edward Little.

“They’ve been working extremely hard in practice and it paid off,” Rand said. “They didn’t get tired. I only played two lines, and they really worked hard.”

The Patriots were already down a couple of key players to illness. After a game misconduct and an injury, the Patriots were battling even lower numbers as well as fatigue.

“We’ve been conditioning a lot,” Nevin Rand said. “We had legs and we just pulled through.”

The game-winner came with 2:36 left in overtime. EL had the puck in the offensive end, but the Patriots managed to chip it out. Ethan Cailler started the odd-man rush and skated down the right boards with a pair of Patriots to his left. He dished it to Rand in front for a quick wrister.

“Ethan was coming down the boards,” Nevin Rand said. “He looked for me. I had a wide open net. It was a layup goal pretty much.”

The Patriots killed off five penalties, including a double minor and a five-minute major. There was also a minor late in regulation.

“Our penalty kill has typically been pretty good in the five years I’ve been here,” Aaron Rand said. “We work on special teams in practice and it really paid off today.”

EL outshot the Patriots 11-2 in the second but couldn’t bury one. The Red Eddies even failed to score on a late two-man advantage. The third period started with that five-on-three. The Patriots got a player back after 41 seconds. Then an EL penalty nixed the power play for two minutes. EL had 2:12 left when that penalty expired, but the Red Eddies still failed to score.

“We just knew we had to get through it and once we did, we had to score and win,” Nevin Rand said.

EL had another late power play in the final minutes but came up empty.

In overtime, EL had a two-on-one when Matt Grenier and Matt Verrill made a rush, but Calvin Shelley made the stop. He finished with 29 stops in the shutout.

“I really like the character of our team,” Aaron Rand said. “They didn’t drop their heads. They really set their heels in and did it.”

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