AUBURN — St. Dom’s and Biddeford/Massabesic/Old Orchard Beach used Wednesday’s regular season contest, a rematch of last season’s Class A boys hockey state title game, to prepare for the upcoming postseason.

Lucas Pushard scored twice and had an assist for the Saints in a 3-0 victory over the Tigers.

For St. Dom’s (12-4-0, Wednesday’s game was about getting pucks into the goal.

“We are continuing to skate and shoot,” St. Dom’s coach Daniel D’Auteuil said. “The kids are starting to listen, and we had 45 shot (attempts), which is our highest shot total all year. One of the things we asked them to do is shoot the puck — they were shooting it.”

The Saints worked all week in practice at getting more shots inside the circles.

The Tigers (4-9-3), meanwhile, were focused on fine-tuning things before their first playoff matchup later this month.

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“Here’s the thing, it’s a wide-open playoff, if we can hone in on a couple things,” Tigers coach Jason Tremblay said. “You got Lewiston and got the rest of the league. Anybody can beat anyone, I think.”

Tremblay wants his team to continue to limit opponents’ shots from the outside.

Pushard opened the scoring a little past the five-minute mark of the opening period with an unassisted goal, the lone goal of the first frame.

“He has been dominating all year for us. He has been that little spark plug, getting those goals for us,” D’Auteuil said. “It’s a big plus when you have that type of character on your team.”

Pushard pushed the Saints’ lead to 2-0 early in the second period. Tigers goalie Gavin Sperlich (22 saves) kicked out a Zackary Pelletier shot right to Pushard, who fired the puck in the goal. Miles Frenette had the secondary assist on the goal.

“We knew we just had to play our game, we knew their defensemen were kind of slow,” Pushard said. “We knew we had to play with our pace and tempo, get pucks deep, work our lines, and we worked hard.”

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Tremblay said Sperlich might want that second goal back, but added that if it wasn’t for the goalie’s play, the Tigers wouldn’t have been in the game as long as they were.

“He did a good job tonight, getting pucks to the corner and stuff like that,” Tremblay said. “We ask a lot from him sometimes in man defense and stuff like that.”

The third period started with Biddeford on the power play, during which they fired four shots on Saints goalie Matthew Gosselin (10 saves).

With about 40 seconds remaining on the power play Tremblay called timeout with the intent not only to get the team back in the game, but to continue to work on some things with the playoffs coming up.

“We are in a spot where we are going to finish in the bottom half (of the standings), maybe being on the road for the prelim round,” Tremblay said. “You got to continue to coach. If you don’t you will be gone in the first round.”

Trembay had the Tigers continue to work on situational hockey when he pulled Sperlich with St. Dom’s leading 3-0 with under two minutes remaining on the power play.

The Tigers were 0-for-2 on the man advantage.

Pushard set up the Saint’s final goal in the third period when, during a power play, his shot was deflected in the crease and Pelletier jammed the puck home with five-plus minutes remaining in the game.

St. Dom’s went 1-for-3 on power plays.


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