St. Dom’s holds off stubborn Thornton.
By Justin Pelletier
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Maybe sneaking up on Thornton Academy hidden in the belly of a wooden horse would have worked better.

Despite outshooting the Trojans 45-13, St. Dom’s and its fans were on the edge of their seats for much of the third period, hoping for an insurance goal that never came.

Still, Tyler Martin, Josh Dwinal and Shawn Longley scored one goal each and Brandon Gervais made 12 saves as the Saints edged Thornton Academy 3-1 in their Western Class A quarterfinal game at the Colisee.

“It was a tight game for sure,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher said. “They hustled and played hard for three whole periods and they kept us from getting any good, solid second shots on net.”

After two choppy periods, it appeared that the Saints might have worked out the bugs with a goal just 47 seconds into the final frame by Shawn Longley, but Thornton struck back at 4:57 with a goal on a rebound in front of Gervais by Andrew Letellier.

“We played them exactly the way we had talked about all game,” Thornton coach Greg Cloutier said. “We kept the puck wide, didn’t give them much in the way of second opportunities. We got the one in the third to make it 3-1, and we had two or three more chances after that, but not quite.”

The Trojans’ defense held firm the rest of the way, and the offense managed as many shots (six) as it had the rest of the game combined, but even with a late power play Thornton couldn’t crack the ice.

As the clock ticked off the final two minutes, the Thornton net was empty, but the Saints still could not find the twine.

The Saints opened the scoring just 57 seconds into the game when Tyler Martin gathered a loose puck behind the Thornton net and swung around the outside of the right circle. Seeing no opposition, Martin crept through the middle of the circle and fired an off-speed wrist shot to the short side, just beating Trojans’ goaltender Jake Smiley over the left pad for the 1-0 lead.

The Trojans, meanwhile, managed two solid scoring chances of their own, one of which came on the only power play of the first frame. The second was a near breakaway by Andrew Letellier after he snuck by Ryan Guerin at the St. Dom’s blue line. Letellier lost the puck as he bore down on St. Dom’s netminder Brandon Gervais, and never got a shot off.

“We knew coming in that we weren’t going to get 30 shots,” Cloutier said. “We figured if we could get two or three good opportunities from the right kids, we’d have a shot. We got a couple of breakaways, but they didn’t turn into goals.”

St. Dom’s added an insurance goal at 6:12 of the second, capitalizing on a 5-on-3 power play after two consecutive calls against Thornton Academy.

With an offensive zone faceoff after the second penalty call, Martin won the puck to his left, right to the stick of Josh Dwinal. Dwinal slid across the center of the slot, picked an opening and fired a wrist shot waist high. The shot clipped Smiley’s arm and bounced into the net for the 2-0 lead.

The Saints outshot the Thornton 19-2 in the second, with Thornton getting its two shots midway through the period. The Trojans did have chances but couldn’t seem to keep the puck on their sticks near the goal, giving Gervais an easy pass through two periods.