The Alvirne-Milford Admirals celebrate their OT win in front of their fans Saturday at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – It was seen as a test for perhaps the biggest surprise of the Division II high school hockey season.

The Alvirne-Milford hockey team aced it.

Saturday the Admirals’ Brandon Ganas scored 2:28 into sudden death overtime to hand Oyster River its first loss of the season, 4-3, at Skate 3 Arena.

“This was the test and we absolutely killed it,” Admirals coach Molly Norton said, the team now 12-3. “That was an unreal win for us.”

In an unreal season that has seen the Admiral players persevere despite controversy. Their new head coach to start the season, Jason Dango, resigned just this past week for undisclosed reasons and Norton took over the reins a couple of weeks ago during his absence and now it’s her ship to steer. But the players haven’t missed a beat as they’ve won seven in a row.

What made this game even more special was the fact the Bobcats (11-1-2) plastered the Admirals 7-0 back on Jan. 4, beat them in last year’s semis, and had a 3-1 lead with three unanswered goals in the second period to take into the third. But the Admirals rallied to tie it , as first Braydon Atwood scooted down left wing off a perfect Ganas long distance feed and beat ‘Cats goalie Cole Harwood at 2:19 of the third to make it 3-2. Then, Bryce Larco scoed with 2:26 remaining (Ryan Ricard assist) for the equalizer.

“We talked about before the third period that we knew they had a couple of guys that liked to stretch out our defense and float in the neutral zone,” Harwood said. “Game plan was to make sure we did not let anybody behind us, and that happened twice in the third period.”

Then, in overtime, it was a repat as the Admirals had a 2 on 1 and Ganas got the pass from Atwood, and scored on his own rebound.

“This was huge,” Ganas said. “(Atwood) saw me, cross ice, I got a breakaway, second chance, and tried to bury it.

“No one thought we would do this well, and we want to shock the world. That’s what’s motivating us right now.”

“They’re a gritty team,” Oyster River coach Peter Harwood said. “They’ve got some guys who can shoot the puck. They’re doing a lot better job keeping the puck out of their net. I don’t think the score at the beginning of the year necessarily reflected the talent on the ice.”

The Admirals grabbed a 1-0 lead on a goal by Dylan Macleod, assisted by Larco, at 7:11 of the second period. But the Bobcats tied it on Talon Beyer’s power play goal at 8: 41, then scored twice in a 44 second span late in the period, Cole Levesque a flukey bounce with 1:44 left and Liam Eddy during a scramble in front with a minute left for the 3-1 lead.

But Admirals goalie Mason Komarek never let that affect him, as he finished with 30 saves.

“He held his own, he came back out and he did it,” Norton said.

And that was kind of the Admirals’ mindset going into the third period, correct what went wrong.

“The attitude was, I guess angst almost,” Norton said. “They knew what they needed to work on, they were the first to call themselves out – this is what we did wrong,and this is what we need to capitalize on. We came out in the third ready to work and we absolutely did.”

Alvirne-Milford’s Brandon Ganas, left, tangles with Oyster River’s Sawyer Levesque duirng Saturday’s Division II clash at Skate 3 Arena in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Alvirne-Milford’s Brandon Ganas, left, tangles with Oyster River’s Sawyer Levesque duirng Saturday’s Division II clash at Skate 3 Arena in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

In Norton’s mind, Ganas was a natural to get the game-winner.

“He’s a pivotal player for us,” she said. “He’s fast, he’s agile, very athletic, can get to the puck and do exactly what he needs, and he proved it.”

“I think we leaked a little bit down low trying to forecheck hard,” Harwood said. “They had a puck that bounced out of the zone and they ended up with a 2 on 1, 2 on 0, and they converted. They converted when they had to on those odd-man rushes. We usually try and shut those down and they converted on three of them today.”

Final grade: A-plus.