LEWISTON — It was just the kind of push the St. Dom’s girls’ hockey team needed Saturday.

The Saints had little to play for in their regular-season finale, but after Scarborough tied the game early in the second period, the Saints responded. St. Dom’s scored twice in the second and weathered the Red Storm in a 4-1 victory.

“We hadn’t come out as strong as we usually do,” said junior forward Marisa Zamrock. “We knew we had to step it up in the second period. When they scored, we knew we had to get our momentum together, and we really had to put the puck in the net.”

Zamrock had three goals for the Saints (17-1) while Sophie Goulet added a goal and an assist. Scarborough’s lone tally came from Sarah Martens. St. Dom’s goalie Nicole Keaney had 17 saves.

Scarborough came in as the top-ranked team in the West and had lost to the Saints, the top seed in the East, 3-2 a few weeks ago. This time the Red Storm were playing without standout Abby Rutt. She was suspended for Saturday’s game after drawing five penalties in a 3-0 loss to Gorham Friday.

“I would say this is definitely a confidence booster for our forwards especially,” said Scarborough coach Caitlin Cashman. “They’re really used to waiting and seeing what Abby does. They kind of proved to our forwards that we can do this. We can run a forecheck. We can score. We can shoot. So although we lost, it was a confidence boost all around.”

St. Dom’s coach Don Boucher said Rutt’s absence made little difference for his club. The Saints had little to play for before with the top-seeding secure.

“We actually wanted her to play, but it didn’t matter one way or the other,” said Boucher. “We never even mentioned her name through the whole game. We don’t feel she’s a threat to us whatsoever.”

Instead, the Saints wanted to mix up the lines and get everybody some game action. With the tournament ahead, ice time is going to be limited for some. So Saturday was a good chance to get everyone in the game.

“Win or lose today didn’t matter to us,” said Boucher. “So we just played everybody. We didn’t shorten the bench at all. Everybody got plenty of ice time. We went out to win, but our intention was to play everyone.”

The game reflected that. There was little intensity and a sparse crowd didn’t do much for the atmosphere. The Saints outshot Scarborough 8-1 in the first period as the Red Storm struggled initially to move the puck without Rutt. St. Dom’s took the lead at 4:01 when Goulet wristed home a loose puck.

Scarborough came to life in the second and started putting shots on net. Martens got behind the Saints defense and tied the game at 2:41.

That momentum didn’t last long. At 4:14, Zamrock took a pass from Lauren Ratsep and blew past the defense for a backhander.

“That kind of took the wind out of our sails,” said Cashman. “We have to know that St. Dom’s is too good of a team to let down against because they’ll capitalize on it.”

Then with 3:37 left, Zamrock scored again, cutting in past the defense for a wrister.

“I pretty much just got the pass from my defense and brought it up all the way and got around the defense,” said Zamrock. “I pulled the goalie out of the net and put it back in.”

Despite Scarborough’s strong start in the period, the Saints outshot the Red Storm 10-9 in the second and did the same in the third 13-8.

The Red Storm’s best scoring chance game with 6:56 left when Kristina Block was in alone on Keaney, but the Saints netminder made the sprawling save. Then with 3:52 left, Zamrock finished off the hat trick with the backhander to the top of the net.

“We still played hard,” said Zamrock. “We still tried our best. I think we just didn’t have the intensity we usually do. I think we tried hard and could have played a little better than that, but I think we did good for what we did.”

kmills@sunjournal.com