LEWISTON – A week ago, Messalonskee was as high as second in the Eastern Class A Heal Point standings after pulling off impressive wins over Lewiston and Bangor.
Wednesday, the Eagles looked like they had a broken wing.
Mark Anthoine potted four goals and Tyler Martin added three more as St. Dom’s, the first-place team in Western Class A, rolled to a 10-0 win over Messalonskee at the Colisee.
“They have to be the best team we’ve faced all year,” said Messalonskee coach Mike Latendresse. “We were dominated.”
All three St. Dom’s lines got rolling early even though Latendresse tried to match his first line with the Saints’ No. 3 unit. That line had five of the team’s 10 goals.
“He started out trying to match up with the lines, having his third on my first,” said St. Dom’s coach John Pleau, who was filling in for an ailing Bob Boucher. “That worked at first, but by the end of the night they had what? Five goals? That’s what happened when we as a team come together and all play well.”
Early on, the Saints (12-2) and Eagles (7-5) skated evenly. In fact, Messalonskee outshot St. Dom’s 6-3 in the early going, and had two quality scoring chances on St. Dom’s netminder Brady Blackman (21 saves).
Anthoine started what proved to be a goal-scoring avalanche at 4:20 of the opening frame, firing the puck top shelf to the short side after a Messalonskee turnover.
Matt Manson added the second at 5:58 when he crept in from the point and fired a snap shot from the middle of the slot on a nice backhand feed from Jon Rutt. The wheels officially came off on Messalonskee at 9:04 when goaltender Mike Hachey threw his stick after misjudging a puck trickling into the zone, resulting in a Pat O’Neil penalty shot.
O’Neil beat Hachey to the blocker side and put the Eagles down 3-0, and Martin slid his first goal past replacement goaltender Zach Parent at 13:25 to close out the period.
“When we have all three lines working like they did tonight, we’re a tough team to beat,” said Pleau. “We knew they have been playing well this year and we made sure not to take them lightly.”
Martin, Anthoine (twice) and Nick Stalford lit the lamp in the second to extend the lead to eight, and Anthoine and Martin each connected once more in the final frame to finish the scoring.
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