LEWISTON — Two shots, two goals.

It could have been the start of a very long night for Messalonskee had St. Dom’s continued at that rate, considering the Saints fired 41 shots at Messalonskee. Still, the Eagles hung around for almost two more periods, causing much trepidation on the Saints’ side of the arena.

Tyler Martin, A.J. Babineau, Shawn Longley, Josh Dwinal and Ryan Guerin all scored in the final seven minutes of the game, helping the Saints pull away from Messalonskee for a 7-1 win at the Central Maine Civic Center Wednesday.

“I think those first two goals came a bit too quickly,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher said. “We fell back into the trap of it being an easy game after getting two early goals, and they are a tough team, and they came back on us a bit.”

Among the Saints’ barrage at the end of the game were two goals less than 10 seconds apart by the same line, and a goal, Guerin’s at 12:25, just 10 second after the start of a power play.

“We played very well right up until that six or seven minute mark to go in the game,” Messalonskee coach Mike Latendresse said. “I don’t really know what happened, but once they got that third one, it was all them from there.”

“That third one was a big one,” Boucher agreed. “I think whoever got that next goal when it was 2-1 was going to have the best chance to take the game.”

Just 15 seconds into the game, Babineau knocked home a backhand feed from Erik Rousseau in the low slot to give the Saints a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later, Steve Nadeau added a goal to the total when he banged home a rebound in front of Messalonskee netminder Ben Conti on a Matt Manson shot. From there, Messalonskee seemed to right the ship, but the shot totals from the period were skewed heavily in the Saints’ favor (16-2).

In the second, the Eagles struck back with a goal at 3:25 when Braydon Shieve fired a shot high to St. Dom’s netminder Brandon Gervais’ stick side, beating the goalie just under the cross bar to pull within one.

“Anytime you can hang in with a team like that as late as we did, you know you played a good game,” Latendresse said. “I think we didn’t generate enough offense to be able to keep up with them, and ultimately that hurt us.”

The Eagles’ defense held tough for the remainder of the second period, stopping the Saints on several odd-man rushes. Conti made several solid stops to preserve the one-goal deficit.

“He really was on top of his game in the second,” Latendresse said. “He kept us in it as long as he could.”