Alvirne-Milford's Landon Briand ponders the upset loss his team suffered in the Division II quarterfinals Saturday at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – There’s no other explanation than to say the Alvirne-Milford boys hockey team saved its worst for last.

The top seeded Admirals simply took a wrong turn in the choppy waters of the Division II tournament and the No. 8 Somersworth-Coe-Brown Bearcats were there to make them pay to the tune of a 6-1 quarterfinal thrashing at Skate 3 Arena.

“It really wasn’t the brand of hockey we’d been playing all season,” Admirals coach Kathy Griswold said. “I don’t know if it was the pressure of the playoffs. We tried everything to get them relaxed, flowing coming into it.

“It really was our worst game all season.”

This was a now-8-11 Bearcats team the Admirals had beaten twice by a combined 9-1 margin, and they never trailed the entire night. They had nothing to lose, and were led by junior forward Miles Messier, who had four goals.

“We had nothing to lose, we worked hard all week, the boys gave it everything they had,” Bearcats coach Fred Strum said. “We knew we had it in us, we had wins over Spaulding and St. Thomas. They decided to play their best game today and picked a good time to play it.”

It was 3-0 after one period with goals by Messier (just 2:24 in), Hunter Rohr (two minutes later) and Kasey Siering (power play).

The thinking was the Admirals, who were without one of their top players, Brandon Ganas, serving a one-game suspension for a game misconduct last week, would get untracked in the second. That once they scored, the goals would start flowing. A-M’s Mason Tomkins scored on a bang-bang power play tally off nice centering pass by Chris Bozza at 8:46, but that was it. Zip the rest of the way.

“That’s been our character all season, we score once and all of a sudden the floodgates open,” Griswold said. “It just didn’t happen. I don’t know if we just played too tense. … I guess I have to chop that up to nerves.”

“Momentum’s a crazy thing, right?” Strum said. “It could have went the other way if they scored first. But we scored first, and we’ll take it.They’re a very good team. They didn’t first for nothing, they’re a very solid team.”

Then how did the Bearcats beat them?

“I think we outworked them,” Strum said. “We believe in ourselves.”

Alvirne-Milford’s Chris Bozza tries to put a backhander on Somersworth-Coe-Brown goalie Colby Strum during Saturday’s Divison II quarterfinal at Skate 3. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Messier finished all the scoring. He scored unassisted with just 43 seconds left in the second to make it 4-1, and then had a pair in the third, both assisted by Patrick Norris. It was over.

A-M netminder Kian Corcoran was facing rush after rush, finishing with 22 saves. But Bearcats goalie Colby Strum survived an onslaught at times, finishing with 30 saves. He and Messier were the stars of the show.

“We have three good goaltenders and it’s tough to chose which one,” Strum said. “We chose right. Colby played very well. And Miles had four goals, unreal. Good time to have his best game, too. Unreal. It all lined up.”

One team’s joy was the other’s heartbreak.

“It’s certainly heartbreaking,” Griswold said. “But it doesn’t take away from how much this team has grown and what it accomplished this year. They’ve been amazing and it’s been a gift to be their coach. And I see a lot more for this program in the coming years.”