AUBURN — Biddeford couldn’t take advantage of its barrage of chances early. When the chances kept coming, the Tigers finally started to convert them into goals.

It helped that St. Dominic Academy provided some of those chances. The Saints put themselves in too big of a hole to come out of and suffered a 7-5 loss in a Class A boys’ hockey game at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Wednesday.

The Tigers (9-4) put three shots on net in the first minute of the game, and kept bombarding St. Dom’s goalie Devon D’Auteuil for the first few minutes.

The Saints (6-6) finally started to swing momentum their way during the middle stage of the opening period, but couldn’t get a shot on frame during a power play. Seconds after the man advantage elapsed, the Tigers put one in the back of the net, with Logan Magnant scoring from Ricky Ruck on a two-on-one.

“Any time you can get a good kill and then answer the call right, after it’s (good),” Tigers coach Jason Tremblay said. “We just got a great play, and were able to capitalize on the two-on-one.”

Biddeford came out charging again to start the second and put in two more goals within the first 3:01 of the period. Brady Creapeau scored all alone off a St. Dom’s turnover, then Curtis Petit scored after a pass from Colin Petit on a two-on-zero off a another turnover just over a minute later.

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“Those are young people’s turnovers,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Parker said.

“We talked about making them turn the puck over, and when they did, make them pay for it,” Tremblay said. “I thought our grade-A chances we capitalized on.”

Will Fletcher stopped the bleeding for the Saints 21 seconds after that, ripping a shot just inside the blue line through the five-hole of Biddeford goalie Owen Sullivan.

Fletcher cut the deficit to one on a breakaway with a little more than five minutes left in the period, going bar down against Sullivan. But Biddeford took momentum right back 20 seconds later, with Ruck re-directing a Crepeau shot past D’Auteuil.

“You hang your head, but you got to move on,” Parker said. “You got to move on, you got to press on for the next goal, and defend your net, also.”

The Tigers scored quickly again to start the third period when Ruck lit the lamp by himself 25 seconds in. But the Saints responded before the first minute was over. Jayson Martin scored from Fletcher and Jack Ouellette to keep it a two-goal game.

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Two Biddeford goals less than three minutes apart put the game out of reach. Colin Petit scored an unassisted power-play goal, then later, Crepeau assisted on Magnant’s second goal.

A Sam Blaisdell goal with just over five minutes left cut the Saints’ deficit to three, and Noah Toussaint cut it to 7-5 with 23.4 seconds left, but the St. Dom’s comeback ran out of time.

“They did a nice job tonight offensively answering the bell,” Tremblay said. “I think that was the most any team’s scored on us all year.”

“That was one of the strong points about this game, was that they didn’t give up,” Parker said. “We continued all the way to the last horn, and I bet you if we played another period, who knows?”

Sullivan stopped 20 of 25 shots for Biddeford, while D’Auteuil made 14 saves for the Saints.

“Devon D’Auteuil stepped in there on a couple hours’ notice and he did a great job, I thought, for his first time this season,” Parker said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com


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