LEWISTON – It took a period for St. Dom’s to get going, but once running on all cylinders, the Saints were unstoppable.

A.J. Babineau had a hat trick, Jon Rutt had a goal and two assists and the St. Dom’s defense held Falmouth to just 10 shots as the Saints upended the Yachtsmen 5-0 at the Central Maine Civic Center on Wednesday.

For St. Dom’s, the win was much-needed after a tough loss last Saturday to Lewiston, and coming just prior to a big game against North Yarmouth Academy on Saturday.

“It was important to get the momentum back to where it was before the weekend,” said St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher. “We’re happy with the blue line and the way the defense played.”

Goaltender Brandon Gervais dropped his goals-against-average to under one with his fourth shutout in five league games.

“He wasn’t tested much all night,” said Boucher, “and then he made some great saves at the end of the game to preserve the shutout. That tells me he’s staying focused out there.”

For Falmouth, the loss was just its second of the season.

“We caught them in the worst possible scenario for us,” said Falmouth coach Scott Rousseau. “They were coming off a tough loss, and we had played Poland/Gray-New Gloucester and Westbrook in our last two games. Tonight, we made the same mistakes, but against St. Dom’s, you can’t get away with those.”

For a while, it seemed that Falmouth may make a game of it, holding the Saints to just one goal, Babineau’s first of the night, in the first period despite being outshot 8-2.

In the second, thanks to some timely offense and some solid rebounding work in front, St. Dom’s built their lead. Rutt redirected a Tyler Martin pass past Falmouth netminder Trevor Paul at 7:42 of the second. Four minutes later, Babineau notched his second on passes from Erik Rousseau and Shawn Longley, and with just 30 seconds to play in the period, Babineau too a feed from behind the net as he cut in from the left circle to complete the hat trick.

“That first line played outstanding for us tonight,” said Boucher. “They played hard and finished off, and they led the way.”

The Saints topped it off in the third with a Tyler Martin goal at 59 seconds. From there, both teams missed on some opportunities, with Gervais making five stops in the final three minutes of play to preserve the shutout.

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