David Bartlett spurs NYA’s come-from-behind 6-4 victory over

St. Dom’s.
By Peter Mullen
Staff Writer

YARMOUTH – There was a shootout at the OK Corral Saturday night. Well, at the Travis Roy Arena anyway.

NYA’s David Bartlett scored three times, and James Sidar registered three assists as the Panthers came from behind to down St. Dom’s, 6-4, in Class A high school hockey action.

The Saints took command early opening the scoring just a minute into the contest.

St. Dom’s Jon Rutt’s shot went to the right of the net, but instead of going around behind the cage came straight back out. Rutt caught NYA netminder Kevin Santillo off balance and put the rebound into the right corner.

Ninety seconds later, Erik Rousseau made it a 2-0 game when he took the feed from the side of the net from teammate Shawn Langley.

“I wasn’t surprised at getting down early,” said NYA coach Kent Hulst. “St. Dom’s always comes out hard and we weren’t ready. They’ve got good balance and they made good on what they got. As long as my boys didn’t get too anxious and stayed in our game plan, I had confidence we would get back on an even playing field.”

That confidence wasn’t misplaced as the Panthers scored a pair of goals just seven seconds apart.

Bartlett got the host team on the board with a power-play goal at the 8:33 mark of the period. It was Sidar with the shot and Bartlett screening St. Dom goaltender Brandon Gervais. Bartlett deflected the puck enough to get credit for the goal.

On the second goal, the loose puck slid in front of the net on a scramble and Bartlett went top shelf over a sprawled out Gervais.

Jacob Edwards put NYA up 3-2 and Mike Perreault tied the contest at three late in the period.

The Saints took their last lead early in the second period when Langley registered the powerplay goal with an assist to AJ Babineau.

It was all Panthers after that.

Bartlett earned the hat trick to tie the game at four and the winning goal was scored by Clayton Kyle as he batted the puck into the goal with his stick.

It was an offensive show throughout as St. Dom’s put 38 shots on Santillo. NYA recorded 19.

“St. Dom’s always shoots the puck at the goal and (coach) Boucher has got them playing very well,” said Hulst. “We kept to our game plan and it makes for a good hockey game.”

Hulst has praise for his goaltender’s efforts.

“Kevin played very well tonight,” said the coach. “I think this is a good breakthrough game for him playing in Class A. Tonight was a really good test for him and he played really well. He contained his rebounds and made the big saves when he had to.”

Gervais played the first two periods for St. Dom’s and Brady Blackman took over in the third.

St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher was unavailable for comment.

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