Manchester West found itself on the side of the Division I hockey tournament highway in a familiar position – out of gas.

Skating only two lines against Salem High School in their quarterfinal-round match on March 4, the ninth-seeded Blue Knights couldn’t hold a 3- 0 lead and were bumped from the playoffs following a 5-4 loss to the eighth-seeded Blue Devils.

“It’s tough when you only have two lines. There’s a lot of ice to cover, and you do a lot of skating,” said West head coach Bob Rougier. “They emptied their tanks, and I couldn’t have gotten anymore out of them than what I got.”

West captain JB Mulvey opened the scoring with 12:15 remaining in the first period on assists from Ryan McDonough and Dalton Charest.

After Keith Pilotte scored to give the Blue Knights a 2-0 lead with 8:56 remaining in the opening frame, Mulvey added a shorthanded goal on a breakaway following a steal at center ice for a 3-0 advantage.

Salem’s head coach, Mark McGinn, said he knew his team would eventually capitalize on West’s fatigue.

“They came out hard, and we didn’t,” said McGinn. “As the game wore on, they got tired. That was part of our game plan, to tire them out. That part worked.”

The second aspect of Mc- Ginn’s game plan was for Salem to take many shots. Since West allowed 81 goals, he said he knew the puck would find the back of the net.

Salem first scored on the power play with just less than two minutes remaining in the second period. The Blue Devils exploded for four third-period goals.

It wasn’t the first time the Blue Knights couldn’t hold a 3- 0 lead; City rival Central overcame that deficit to edge West in January, 4-3.

“It happened to us a few times, but I don’t think it was a prevalent theme,” said Rougier. “I think we did improve on our team defense as the season went on.”