LEWISTON – A quick glance at the St. Dom’s faithful after the first period Tuesday night was the first hint that something was terribly wrong. The second hint was on the scoreboard.
Despite outshooting the Mt. Ararat Eagles 15-8 in the opening frame, the Saints trailed 1-0.
It didn’t last.
Six different Saints scored goals and 10 players had at least one point – all in the final half of the game – as St. Dom’s exploded for 10 unanswered goals and upended the upset-minded Eagles 10-1 in a Class A hockey game at the Colisee.
“The first half of the game we were up against a real hot goaltender,” said St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher. “We have to credit Mt. Ararat’s goalie. he made a lot of good saves early on and kept them in the game. We missed on some breakaways that he stopped, and we hit the post a few times, too.”
Four times, to be exact, between the opening faceoff and 8:06 of the second period when Mike Carpenter potted the first goal.
Jordan Martin was under fire all night, facing 15 shots in the first, 20 in the second and 25 in the third for 60 on the game. He stopped 50 of them.
“He has been real strong for us all year and he had another great game,” said Mt. Ararat coach Mike Abreu. “His goalie coach has helped him out a lot this year.”
Nick Cloutier put the visiting Eagles ahead 1-0 early when he sent a shot sailing toward St. Dom’s netminder John Emerson (11 saves). The puck glanced off of a defender’s back and found the net.
In the second, after another barrage of shots on Martin, Carpenter’s goal broke the ice. Nick Stalford potted a goal at 9:39 to put the Saints ahead and Carpenter struck again at 13:39 to pad the lead.
“We just ran out of gas,” said Abreu. “Once the legs gave out, we were done.”
Mark Anthoine, Ryan Guerin, Dylan Nadeau and Pat O’Neil all scored in the first half of the final frame to put the game out of reach, and Nadeau and Tom Gosselin combined for three more in the latter half, including two goals in the final 30 seconds, to give the Saints double digits in the goals column.
Comments are no longer available on this story