HALLOWELL — Penalties continued to rear their ugly collective head for Gardiner on Saturday night.

A slew of them against the Tigers in the middle period played a significant role in allowing Bangor to skate off to a 5-1 win over Gardiner at the Camden National Bank Ice Vault. For the second weekend in a row, the Tigers (6-3-0) were undone by their inability to stay out of the sin bin.

“A little bit. It is what it is,” Gardiner coach Sam Moore said. “They weren’t totally stupid penalties, but I saw it a little bit different than the ref did. Bangor deserved it. They outworked us a little bit tonight, and we’ll just chalk this up as a learning experience.”

The Rams (6-4-0) broke open a close game in the second period with Gary Farnham’s unassisted power play goal at the 10:32 mark, after Gardiner had spent more than three straight minutes shorthanded following consecutive roughing calls. With the momentum on its side after going up 3-1 on Farnham’s tally, Dan Beal scored just 61 seconds later to make it 4-1 through two periods and all but seal the Tigers’ fate.

Beal, who added an insurance marker in the third period, finished the night with a pair of goals. Josh Sherwood had a goal and an assist for the Rams, while Joe Clark scored the lone Gardiner goal.

“The power play has been key for us the last two games,” Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said. “We scored three the other night against Cony and got another one tonight. We’ve disciplined up, we’ve stayed out of the box on our end, and that’s what it takes to win games.”

While the penalties were the byproduct of Bangor’s play, the chief culprit was the Rams ability to spread the neutral zone on the Tigers and, once they gained entry into the offensive zone, fire pucks on Gardiner goalie Michael Poirier (26 saves) and hunt down rebounds at will.

“It’s just about playing physical, mostly. We have some size,” Bangor senior defenseman Farnham said. “We work on dumping it, getting after it and putting the body on them, and then from the blue line throwing it on net and letting guys go get those rebounds.”

“The good teams play that way,” Moore said. “We’ve got to have our own guys low and not worry about how pretty it looks and score some what I call ‘dirty’ goals. They all count the same.”

After falling behind by two goals in the first period, Clark cut the Tiger deficit to 2-1 at 4:56 of the second period, punching home the rebound of a Cam Bigelow shot following a face-off win in the offensive zone.

Clark nearly tied the score less than a minute later, on a two-on-one breakaway, but his bid was kept out by the post to the right of Bangor netminder Derek Fournier (21 saves).

But starting to assert themselves in the attacking zone, and do so with more than their top line, was brought to a crashing halt by penalties. In all, Gardiner committed three minors in the middle stanza.

“If we come out and play solid, there’s no reason we can’t beat that team,” Moore said. “We had our chances and things just didn’t bounce right. It’s just one of those games.”

The night didn’t get off to a good start for Gardiner, which relied heavily on Poirier to survive a barrage over the first few minutes. Perhaps the senior’s best stop of the night came just 2:27 into the opening frame when, while lying on his side in the crease after making the initial save, he was able to snag Kodi Legassie’s rebound chance from the low slot area.

The Rams got on the board at the 8:29 mark, when Nick Boudreau was left alone to bang home the rebound of a Dan Webber bid.

Just over two minutes later, the lead doubled when Sherwood picked up an ill-advised blind pass at his own blue line — during a spell of sustained pressure for the Tigers — and turned it into a breakaway goal and a 2-0 lead.

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC