AUBURN — Edward Little boys hockey coach Norm Gagne and St. Dominic Academy coach Dan D’Auteuil were both surprised by the 8-1 final score in Monday’s matinee, which was won by the Red Eddies, at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

“My biggest fear coming into this game was St. Dom’s has been playing some good hockey; they have been playing some good hockey,” Gagne said. “I told the kids: ‘The last game we played (against St. Dom’s after Christmas) is way back in our rearview mirror and this game will be 0-0 (at the start). We have to come out and be ready. It doesn’t matter if it’s against St Dom’s or whoever we play; we got a bull’s eye on our back.'”

The Red Eddies (11-0) won the first matchup of the season 10-0.

Of the Saints’ past six losses, four have been by one or two goals.

“We don’t play well when we don’t get the first goal,” D’Auteuil said. “When we get the first goal, as we did in Bangor, we play well. As soon as we get that first goal against, we kind of deflate a little bit. I think that’s because of the young age of the team.”

St. Dom’s (0-12) was tied 2-2 with Bangor last Wednesday with three and half minutes remaining before losing 6-2.

On Monday, Wesley Clements, Jack Keefe and Campbell Cassidy each scored two goals for Edward Little.

Gagne said the Red Eddies played as a unit.

“One thing I wanted them to keep doing is running the system,” Gagne said. “I told them before the game: ‘My success comes from the system and players running it, not me.’ That’s why I always give them credit, and we did a pretty good job of that.”

Cassidy said knows they are running the system well when the team is playing a 200-foot game.

“He means we are working together and in all three zones: neutral zone, offensive zone and defensive zone,” Cassidy said. “It happens when everybody is playing their role correctly and you build off each other.”

The Red Eddies opened the scoring 79 seconds into the game when Wesley Clements found the back of the net. Jack Keefe had the assist.

“I wanted to see more aggressive play today,” D’Auteuil said. “We kind of stood around with our feet kind of in cement instead of actually skating to them and taking the puck away.”

Cassidy tapped home a loose puck in the crease to stretch Edward Little’s lead to 2-0.

“Our defenseman (Gavin Levesque) put a nice low shot on goal, and I was lucky to be there and tap it in,” Cassidy said.

Jack Keefe tipped home a Brody Keefe point shot with about six minutes remaining in the first period for a 3-0 lead.

Jack Keefe scored his second goal of the game on the power play. St. Dom’s goalie Jayden Lynn (29 saves) made the initial save on Gavin Levesque’s shot, but the rebound kicked out to Keefe, who then fired the puck from the left circle into the half-open net for a 4-0 lead.

Tate Morse stretched the lead to 5-0 with 6:35 remaining in the second period when the puck was loose in the crease and he got his stick on it to put it in the net.

Trey Coulombe stretched the lead to 6-0 with about five minutes remaining in the second period.

The Saints started to put some shots on Edward Little goalie Camren Dufour during two power plays, but the sophomore answered the task after seeing only six shots through the first two periods.

“We had our chances, but we couldn’t buy a goal,” D’Auteuil said. “That’s been our problem all year — we can’t finish.”

Edward Little went 1-for-3 on the power play and the Saints were 0-for-4.

Dufour made seven saves in the third period.

“I was really pleased with Dufour tonight. When he did make a save, he came up big,” Gagne said. “He made some really good stops, and he kept his composure in his first varsity game. He did a very good job for us.”

Arvid Andersson’s snap-shot broke Dufour’s shutout bid in the middle of the third period.

The Red Eddies responded with two quick goals from Cassidy and Clements.

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