Boys hockey: St. Dom’s jumps on Lewiston for rivalry win

AUBURN — St. Dom’s built a lead and held on to it for a 4-1 victory in a battle with Lewiston in a boys hockey game at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Wednesday.

“The whole team was excited; they are going to remember this for a while,” St. Dom’s coach Dan D’Auteuil said. “We told them before the game, ‘These are the types of games that make your memories at St. Dom’s, these big games when you can dig deep down.'”

The Saints snapped a three-game losing streak against the Blue Devils.

Sophomore Ben Dumais scored twice for St. Dom’s (8-3-1) and Timothee Ouellette had a goal and an assist.

Dumais said the Saints played a full 45 minutes.

“It’s great, we didn’t have a great performance the last time against them,” Dumais said. “We didn’t play well throughout that game, and this game, we had to play a full game. We’ve had issues playing periods and not full games. I think we did a pretty good job today maintaining pressure on them.”

D’Auteuil said the coaching staff was on the players this past week to not let up.

“We preached two things to them: One, put a lot of pressure on their (defense), which we do when our guys are doing flying, getting that puck deep, and playing the whole game,” D’Auteuil said. “Play the whole 15-minute period, not letting down. We didn’t do that tonight; we didn’t have that letdown period.”

St. Dom’s took an early lead in the first when Dumais found the back of the net five minutes in.

“The wrap-around is something I have tried before and it hadn’t worked, but (Lewiston goalie Gabe Pomerleau) didn’t get all the way across, so I went for it,” Dumais said.

Ethan Pelletier stretched the lead to 2-0 with a sharp-angle shot right at the goal line a little over 10 minutes into the game.

“Going down 2-0 right away, it’s tough,” Lewiston coach Jamie King said. “We couldn’t find the net.”

Lewiston (8-4) scored its only goal in the second period when forward Colton Daniels picked up the loose puck beside St. Dom’s goalie Jayden Lynn’s crease and slid the puck in.

“We were getting back on track there in the second and we were hoping in the second and third intermission, we had a power play coming,” King said. “We tried to set something up and they scored shorthanded. That was kind of it for us at that point.”

The Blue Devils had a power play that carried over from the second. Ouellette sprung in for a shorthanded breakaway to restore the Saints’ two-goal lead in the first minute of the third period.

“I saw Gabe come out a little bit, and when I saw him backtrack to his net, he was a little off-centered and he couldn’t get back to the other side and I slipped it by his pad,” Ouellette said.

Lewiston’s Ethan Blue got ejected for a five-minute major 6:40 into the third period, and seven seconds later, a Dumais wrist shot from the left circle beat Pomerleau (26 saves). Ouellette and Riley Daigle had the helpers.

“We did a good job getting the puck out of the corner and I kind of just shot it,” Dumais said. “I got a little lucky, I guess, that it went in.”

Ethan Blue will miss Saturday’s game against Marshwood/Noble/Sanford.

Lewiston had a shorthanded chance on the major when the puck bounced off Lynn (25 saves) and nearly rolled past him.

“At that point, it’s not our night,” King said.

Lewiston hit a couple of posts throughout the contest.

The Saints stayed focused for the remainder of the game to defend the three-goal lead. They blew a five-goal lead in their home game against the Blue Devils last season.

“It was certainly seeping into our minds,” Ouellette said. “I heard a couple of guys say, ‘Remember last year, remember the pain?’ And nobody wanted to repeat that. We showed we didn’t want the same result.”