AUBURN — As senior nights go, the one celebrated Saturday by Leavitt Area High School’s girls’ hockey team was just … well … weird.

Oh, it had the nice, prerequisite pregame ceremony, complete with balloons and flowers and family embraces. It even had the desired happy ending for the Hornets, who stormed past St. Dominic Regional High School, 5-1, at Ingersoll Arena.

But forgive the Hornets if they didn’t quite know how to approach the game, never mind how vigorously to celebrate when it was over.

That’s because no matter what happened, No. 2 Leavitt (14-2-2) was locked into an Eastern Class A semifinal date with No. 3 St. Dom’s (8-7-3).

“Same time, same place,” said Leavitt coach Christine Vincent.

Leavitt didn’t worry too much about having shown its hand, though, in part because the secret’s out about the Hornets.

They flaunt one of the fastest skaters and most skilled finishers in the state. And on this night set aside to honor upperclassmen, she’s still a freshman.

Kara Violette scored four of Leavitt’s goals and assisted sophomore Kayla Royer on the fifth.

“Tonight was definitely different, because the past games when I scored a lot it was against weaker teams,” Violette said.

Leavitt concluded the regular season with a 14-game unbeaten streak. Two of those were ties, including a 3-3 deadlock with the Saints on Jan. 6.

The rematch was far less stressful, even after Kayla McLellan connected to give St. Dom’s the lead 2:16 into the opening period.

Violette answered at 5:45 with her first of three unassisted goals on the night. She repeated that feat at 1:44 of the second to put the Hornets on top for good.

Leavitt lit the lamp three times in a span of just over four minutes to launch the third period. Royer headlined the barrage with a power-play goal to make it 3-1 at the 1:22 mark.

“Tonight was definitely a confidence booster, because I thought we played just as well last time (against St. Dom’s) and the result didn’t show it,” Vincent said. “I was a little nervous when they scored right off the bat, because it seemed like the momentum wasn’t there. But it only took us a couple of minutes to get right back in the game.”

Royer’s goal came with St. Dom’s missing one of its primary offensive threats. Sophie Goulet was sidelined at the time due to a double minor penalty and a 10-minute misconduct.

“The refereeing was disappointing. Our top player was out of the game for 18 minutes,” said St. Dom’s coach Don Boucher. “But on the other hand, on a good note, Leavitt did a great job. They were on top of their game tonight, and we weren’t. And the bottom line is that I’d rather lose this one than the next one.”

Leavitt’s defensive corps, led by goalie Briana Stanley (15 saves) and seniors Briana Dionne and Kylie Vincent, kept the Saints’ scoring opportunities to a bare minimum throughout.

Although hockey has been a girls’ varsity sport for only two years in the state, Coach Vincent started the program when her younger daughter and classmates Dionne, Theresa Waterbury, Sarah Durgin and Shelby Poland were in eighth grade.

“We’ve played together all four years,” Kylie Vincent said. “It’s so exciting. I tried to think of this as if it were my last game. It’s good to go out on top.”

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