By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Tyler Martin was back and Brady Blackman still had fresh memories of his stellar performance against Falmouth dancing in his head, but neither circumstance was enough to reverse the end result of the team’s previous meeting.

Falmouth scored four goals on just 25 shots and skated away with a 4-2 victory over the Saints in a critical Western Class A matchup at the Colisee on Wednesday.

“Everyone was all excited, it was senior night, we had Tyler back, they gave everything we had in the first period and in the second period, we just didn’t show up to play,” said St. Dom’s coach John Pleau.

For Falmouth, winning on the road was an important step after a tough weekend.

“We had a tough loss on Saturday,” said Falmouth coach Scott Rousseau, whose team lost to Cheverus 4-0 over the weekend. “With the Heal Point system this year, I don’t think we can watch the rankings too much because of the imbalanced schedule. It’s about playing good hockey and let the chips fall.”

The win solidifies the Yachtsmen’s hold on the No. 5 spot for the playoffs, perhaps even jumping over Biddeford for fourth, while the Saints might be in danger of playing in a preliminary game to open up this year’s tournament.

“We needed to win this one,” said Pleau. Hopefully we’ll win the rest of the way out, get a good spot for the playoffs, but I don’t care. You have to win them all to get to the final anyway.”

Martin, meanwhile, played solid in his first game action since suffering a concussion against Lewiston in January, even getting his team’s two goals in the loss.

James Tolan led a steady, spread-out Falmouth attack with two goals, his second marking his 100th point as a Yachtsman. His second goal, at 3:20 of the third period, put a dagger through the Saints’ comeback efforts.

“Your top scorers, sooner of later it gets to be their night,” said Rousseau. “It was James’ night to night. He hadn’t been scoring, he’s a playmaker and tonight it was his turn. You score when you’re the right guy in the right place at the right time.”

Martin started his comeback off on the right track, putting the Saints ahead 1-0 at 6:18 of the opening frame when he poked the puck from underneath Kump before the officials blew the whistle to stop play.

“They were a bit more ready to play than us,” said Rousseau. “I think we had a little bit of bus legs and they were winning battles, especially on the boards.

Brian Greene pulled Falmouth even at 9:01 of the first when he pulled up at the right face-off dot and fired a wrist shot that inexplicably beat Blackman to the far side, ticking the St. Dom’s netminder on the way by.

“This was a real off game for (Blackman),” said Pleau. “It’s rare, but it happened, and I know he feels really bad, but we just have to move on from here.”

St. Dom’s put some pressure on the Yachtsmen late in the first period, but Kump made four saves in the closing minute to preserve the tie.

In the second, Falmouth opened up a precarious two-goal lead on two shaky rebounds by Blackman. The Yachtsmen’s first goal of the middle frame came at 6:29 when Jeff McCorkle blasted the puck from the right point. The shot hit Blackman and bounced dead in front of him, but the netminder thought he had it smothered. Nick Galli reached his stick down and slid the puck past Blackman to put Falmouth ahead 2-1.

Tolan added Falmouth’s third of the night at 10:05 when he fired a slow wrister from the top of the slot toward the net. Blackman went into his butterfly, but the puck snuck underneath his pads anyway.

The Saints couldn’t mount any more pressure than six shots, most of which came early on in the middle frame. Falmouth also gave the Saints three power plays, none of which seemed to give St. Dom’s an edge.

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