LEWISTON —A dominant first half of the game and timely, solid goaltending did the trick for St. Dom’s on this night.

Cody and Dylan Rodrigue and Nate Bergeron each scored a goal in the game’s first 17 minutes and Josh Charest came through in the clutch with several key glove saves to lead St. Dom’s to a 3-2 win over Scarborough at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday.

“It’s like we played two games here,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “The first half was great. We came out fast in the first and in the second period, but we gave them the second half of the second period and the second half of the third period. (Scarborough) worked hard and worked until the end. Good thing we had a goalie who was pretty sharp tonight.”

The Red Storm had their chances. Charest snared a pair of Andrew Nigro breakaway shots with his glove, and the senior keeper also snuffed out a pair of rebound chances early in the third to keep Scarborough at bay.

“We could not bury one,” Scarborough coach and former Lewiston bench boss Norm Gagne said. “(Charest) played a great game, but we kept shooting to the same place, too. I said, ‘Guys, you think we might try going to his stick side?'”

Faced with a 3-0 deficit, the Storm climbed back into the game. Trevor Hoxsie fired the puck past Charest at 11:32 of the third period to break up Charest’s shutout bid, and Nigro fought through a crowd in front to pull his squad within one with seven seconds to play in regulation.

“I liked how we fought hard right to the end,” Gagne said. “If we can build on this going forward, we’ll be fine.”

The Saints jumped out to an early lead when Cody Rodrigue followed a 2-on-1, corralled a loose puck and fired it into an empty cage just 2:39 into the contest.

St. Dom’s spent much of the first half of the frame in the Red Storm’s end, but Scarborough countered with a few chances of its own. Charest turned back a breakaway at the 8:45 mark as Nigro slipped in behind the Saints’ defense.

Bergeron added an insurance marker at 12:15 of the first on a finish of a scramble in fron of Mayo. He stepped to his left and found the back of the net to give his squad a two-goal cushion.

“They were all good goals,” Ouellette said. “We followed the puck to the net and got rebounds.”

Dylan Rodrigue wheeled and fired the puck past Mayo through a screen at 1:33 of the second to put the Saints up by three. But the Red Storm didn’t go quietly. Nigro again had a breakaway in the middle frame, and Charest was again up to the task, snaring the puck with his glove to preserve his squad’s three-goal advantage.