LEWISTON – The St. Dom’s hockey team was expected to have a finishing touch this season, and Saturday’s opener certainly didn’t alter that thinking.

The Saints came out firing against Edward Little at the Colisee and skated to a convincing 13-1 victory.

“We have a lot of expectations for this team,” said senior forward Spencer Teixeira. “This is the last year for our seniors. So we came out with a bang.”

Teixeira had a hat trick and an assist for the Saints. Casey Parker had two goals and three assists while Richard Paradis had two goals and two assists. Alex Parker had two goals and an assist.

St. Dom’s built a 4-0 lead in the first period and added to that with a trio late in the second.

“We showed some flashes,” said St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette. “We were a little sloppy because mentally, who we were playing coming into it, we got off to a very sloppy start. I think some of the goals were certainly pretty goals.”

EL was already down three players coming into the game. Starting goaltender Rich Belanger was injured after the first period and EL lost a few more players to injury during the game. By the third period, the Red Eddies had already used all three goaltenders and were down to only a handful of extra players on the bench.

“They’re a good hockey team,” said EL coach Craig Latuscha. “We were shorthanded to start with. We lost three or four guys including our starting goaltender. We played with a lot of heart and gave it our best effort.”

It didn’t take long for the Saints to seize control of play. The opening face-off went down to EL’s end right away, but the Saints quickly moved it to the other end and kept it there. St. Dom’s outshot the Red Eddies 16-3 in the opening period and built a quick 4-0 lead.

The first goal came just 1:34 in. Teixeira took a Casey Parker feed and fired it home from the right post.

EL had the chance to counter when a pair of Saints penalties gave the Red Eddies a two-man advantage for 44 seconds. EL got its first shot of the period during that span, with 6:09 left but could only generate one more shot on the power play. To make matters worse, St. Dom’s scored a shorthanded goal with 5:04 left. Alex Parker missed a breakaway bid but got the puck back from Ben Randall. He had plenty of time at the left post to bury the wrister.

The Saints added two more within the next 2:35. Paradis fired a blast from the right point and Teixeira one-timed a pass from the corner for the 4-0 lead.

“We wanted to come out and set the tempo in the first period,” said Teixeira. “We haven’t had very good first periods. It’s something we’ve been working on in practice and it’s something that needs to get done.”

EL got on the board with 1:56 left in the period when Matt Gordon scored on a power play.

EL had its best pressure in the second period on a power play. The Red Eddies produced a half dozen shots but were still out-gunned in the period, 15-7.

“No excuses,” said Latuscha, whose club went 1-for-7 on the power play. “They beat us. They’re a good team. If we stayed out of the penalty box we’d have been alright.”

The Saints finished the period strong with three goals in the final 4:16. Casey Parker, Alex Parker and Paradis all tallied to build an 8-1 lead.

In the third period, Cody Rodrigue, Nate Bergeron, Casey Parker, Garrett Grant, Teixeia and Dylan Rodrigue scored goals.

“A lot of guys got their first goals and their first points in their high school hockey careers,” said Ouellette. “Confidence-wise that will only help them.”