AUBURN – Saint Dominic Academy enjoyed the relative eternity of three minutes to draft its strategy for the overtime face-off after the end of regulation Saturday night.

The Saints also had senior sparkplug back Brad Berube, who missed the entire preseason and first regular-season game while recuperating from a broken wrist, back in the fold and sharing the ice with Austin Roy.

It wasn’t a huge gamble to go for the win from the drop of the puck, and it was even less of a surprise that St. Dom’s cashed in and finished off Biddeford. Roy’s second goal of the night, courtesy of Berube’s third assist, supplied the 4-3 victory five seconds into the extra session at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

Just how they drew it up.

“Coach said for Austin to push it forward,” Berube said. “I come across, give it to Noah (Toussaint), and Noah gives it back to A-Roy. That’s exactly how it happened.”

Berube and Toussaint also set up Roy for a goal in the second period. That, too, was the product of a faceoff, only seven seconds after the Tigers tied the game.

Junior and senior-dominated St. Dom’s (2-0) survived a scare from freshman and sophomore-heavy Biddeford (1-1).

Mitch Lorenz’s blast from the blue line, by way of Berube, tied the game with 4:19 remaining in regulation. Both the equalizer and game-winner came on the power play.

“It was a great hockey game in general,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “Biddeford came to play. They were gritty, got a great goaltending performance. They’ve got some skilled players who are very dangerous.”

Brandon Daigle, one of only three Biddeford seniors, made 28 saves. Sixteen of those came in the second period, when the Tigers twice battled back from being down a goal to lead 3-2.

Freshmen Logan Magnant and Colin Lavigne scored for the Tigers along with junior Joe Anders.

“It was a good a measuring stick. We were happy to get this early in the season,” Biddeford coach Rich Reissfelder said. “It was a good game. It was up and down. They probably could have put in two or three more. We could have put in two or three more. In overtime we had a little mental error on the face-off, and it was over quick.”

Roy, a junior, relished the reunion with Berube, who suffered the injury during a fall tournament.

“There’s nothing like it,” Roy said. “Brad’s just one of those players who brings everybody up and totally changes the flow of the game.”

Three nights after beating another Class A power, Scarborough, St. Dom’s was sharp out of the gate, scoring at the 26-second mark.

Goalie Alex Michaud’s knockdown of a Kerry Crepeau bid sent Ryan Lutrzykowski on a rush down the left side. Lutrzykowski centered the puck to Caleb Labrie, who kept his balance long enough while sliding through the slot to beat Daigle.

Labrie had another goal waved off early in the second period. The referee overlooking the play originally thought Labrie had deposited Adam Poulin’s floating pass over the cage in a sequence tailor-made for the highlight film, only to discover that Daigle somehow smothered the puck between his pads.

Magnant tied it with a seeing-eye wrister from the point, courtesy of Max Mourmouras and Mike Reissfelder, at 5:17 of the second. Roy promptly reclaimed the lead with his first goal.

The Tigers weren’t done, however. They strung together Anders’ backhander on the power play, Ricky Ruck and Crepeau assisting, and Lavigne’s tally off a rebound, set up by Mourmouras and Magnant, in a 43-second span to grab the lead.

“It would have been easy to give up and feel sorry for ourselves. But we came back and had two right after that and almost a third to make it 4-2, which would have been nice,” Coach Reissfelder said. “Our freshmen line actually are the only ones that have played together. They had two goals tonight and probably a couple other opportunities.”

Michaud made seven of his 19 saves in the third period to give the Saints an opportunity.

Penalties against two of Biddeford’s veterans helped St. Dom’s cause down the stretch.

“We knew that they were going to give us a good game. Every game is going to be tough for us this year,” Roy said. “It definitely was a good test for us. We knew it was going to be tough, but we had the will to come back.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

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