LEWISTON — It scored early, it scored often, and Thornton Academy left St. Dom’s shell-shocked.

A four-goal first period — despite being outshot — was more than enough for the Trojans against a bewildered Saints squad that did everything it could but score as Thornton skated off with an 8-1 victory over St. Dom’s in a clash of top teams from each of the two Class A hockey conferences at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Wednesday.

“The score probably doesn’t indicate how close these hockey teams are,” Thornton coach Jamie Gagnon said. “We were opportunistic tonight, took care of some opportunities they gave us and I thought we did a good job of putting three periods together.”

C.J. Maksut was again a shining star for the Trojans, netting a hat trick and adding an assist for a four-point night, leaving him just three shy of setting the school’s career scoring mark.

“We’ve been relying (on the top line) to give us some offense all year long,” Gagnon said. “But we also got some contributions from other lines and other players. It was a well-rounded effort.”

Andrew Carignan and Nick Chen each scored a goal and added a pair of assists and Bryan Dallaire added one of each for Thornton, which bounced back well from a pre-Christmas loss to Falmouth with the win Wednesday at the Colisee.

“We made sure we watched that last night, just to make sure it wasn’t too far off in the memories,” Gagnon said with a smirk. “We watched it, we relived it and made sure we still had a bad taste in our mouths coming into (Wednesday’s) game.”

The Lewiston venue has been kind to Thornton in recent years, and has always been kind to Gagnon, who coached Biddeford to a pair of state titles.

“It’s always special to play here,” Gagnon said. “I think the kids all know the history associated with this building, and they always have a little bit extra in the tank when we play here.”

The deluge in the first period began as Dallaire crashed the net after a rush by Maksut. The Saints had several scoring chances with no luck finding the back of the cage before Maksut took off in the other direction, with Dallaire in tow. Carrier stuffed Maksut’s chance, but Dallaire capitalized on the rebound.

Just 1:02 later, on a power play, the Trojans added another, this time with Maksut getting credit for the goal on a backhander from in tight.

“We know they’re a good-skating team, and we know they have three lines that can play,” Gagnon said. “That was part of our message early, we had to bring our skating legs.”

Brad Berube finished on his third scoring opportunity of the frame to cut the Thornton lead in half. Danny Nadeau gathered the puck in the right corner and found Berube alone in front for an easy tap-in.

From there, it was all Thornton Academy. The Trojans used seamless transition to carve through the center zone and pepper Carrier with chances. It took only 53 seconds for a reply as Maksut netted his second with a wrist shot over Carrier’s glove from 10 feet. TA added a fourth in the opening frame on a pretty deke from Nick Chen to finish a 2-on-1 with Andrew Carignan.

“We talk all the time about answering, so once they got that big goal to make it 2-1, it was about answering and not letting the ice tilt to let them back in the game. That’s been a problem for us the last couple of games.”

The Saints began the second period with the knowledge they’d outshot the Trojans in the first, and for the most part controlled the pace of play.

Thornton took that away from St. Dom’s in the second, as well.

Maksut completed his hat trick at 3:42 of the third for his fourth point on the night, and Carignan tacked on another on a feed from Greg Lodge at 7:23.

Thornton added another pair in the third on Austin Christopher, who relieved Carrier for the Saints after the sixth tally. Alex Fallon finished a chance on a pass from Chen, and Robert Downing netted the Trojans’ eighth with 1:28 to play.