By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Brady Blackman and John Emerson were the loneliest St. Dom’s players on the ice Wednesday night. So lonely in fact, that when a shot came their way, it took a few moments to remember what to do with it. Blackman nearly scored on his own net when he backhanded a puck from the circle trying to hit his defenseman. Emerson, meanwhile, faced the toughest three shots of the night, and seemed to have a bit of trouble handling the first couple. Despite the bobbles, though, nothing went in.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice, their teammates were having all sorts of fun.

Jon Rutt scored twice and Tom Gosselin, Tyler Martin and Matt Manson each scored once as the Saints rolled to a 5-0 win over the Deering Rams in the teams’ Western Class A quarterfinal tilt at the Colisee.

“It was good to get the first one out of the way,” said St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher. “We have a lot of kids that don’t have any playoff experience, and it gave us a bit of momentum going into Friday’s game.”

Despite the score, Deering freshman netminder Nick Broadwater played arguably the best game of his young career, stopping 75 shots in the loss, several of which were acrobatic in nature on tough shots from inside of 10 feet.

“He’s got all the tools,” said Deering coach Mike Barden. “He’s just one of those kids that always comes to play. It could have been 16, 18, 20 to nothing in that game, but he came up big.”

“He has a bright future ahead of him,” added Boucher. “He is easily one of the best we’ve faced all year.”

The win moves St. Dom’s into the Western Class A semifinals, being played at the Colisee on Friday.

At the Colisee, the momentum fell in favor of the home team from the drop of the puck. It took Rutt just 5:22 to open the scoring, as he popped his first goal past Broadwater on the Saints’ 13th shot on net.

“(Rutt) had a lot of quality offensive opportunities,” said Boucher. “He had a solid game.”

Manson made it 2-0 when he skated in from the right point through two screens and fired a wrister past Broadwater high to the blocker side, and Rutt potted his second of the night at 13:48 on a feed from Gosselin.

In the second, St. Dom’s eased up, taking just 26 shots instead of the 34 in the first. Martin tipped a Mike Carpenter slapshot past Broadwater at 10:51 to add the Saints’ fourth goal, and Gosselin got one of his own at 14:38 to cap the scoring.

Emerson replaced Blackman for the final period, and saw three shots.

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