AUBURN – The luster of this rivalry, sparked in part by Edward Little’s rise to power four years ago, and also by St. Dom’s move from Lewiston into Auburn, has faded. Badly.
Hundreds of people packed Ingersoll Arena on Saturday, hoping the two schools would use the feel of a rivalry to fuel a tight game. What they saw was a penalty-filled, lopsided win for the Saints.
Tom Gosselin had two goals and two assists and Tyler Martin potted two goals of his own while Alex Tyburski added a goal and three assists as the Saints rolled to a 7-1 win over the Eddies.
“For playing an undisciplined game like we played, it’s good to walk away with a win, but it wasn’t pretty by any means on either side,” said St. Dom’s coach John Pleau. “The referees said at the beginning of the game that they were going to call a close game, but I didn’t think it was going to be that close. No one could get into the flow of their game.”
Edward Little was the beneficiary most of the night, getting 12 chances with an extra skater, but never connected. In fact, St. Dom’s scored three of its seven goals while shorthanded.
“They have to be smarter with the puck,” said EL coach Craig Latuscha. “We have to cycle the puck a little bit smarter and make sure they know where the other team is, even if they are shorthanded.”
After taking four penalties in the first period, EL took just two more the rest of the way.
“On the positive side, I think discipline was a lot better than it had been,” said Latuscha. “They held their composure, there were a lot of cheap shots taken and I think they were smart to stay out of the box most of the night.”
That was little deterrent for the Saints offense. The first line of Gosselin, Martin and Tyburski had five of the team’s goals, and has been deadly against every opponent so far this season, averaging almost six goals per game.
“I’m saying it’s one of the top lines in the state,” said Pleau. “They can move the puck well, they have a lot of individual talent as well as the team. They get the job done and that’s a good thing.”
Gosselin got his two in the first period, one of which came shorthanded, while Martin’s two in the second framed Codie Keene’s goal to put St. Dom’s ahead 5-0.
“I’m starting to get scoring from the other two lines,” said Pleau. “They’ve been making things happen in the last three or four games.”
EL got it’s only goal with 40 seconds to play in the middle frame on a Nick Merrill rebound tally. The Saints added two more in the third to close out the scoring.
Brady Blackman stopped 16 of 17 shots to earn the win, while Adam Loudermilk stopped 21 of the 28 shots for EL.
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