AUBURN —Don Boucher is excited that he’ll have Nicole Keaney between the pipes for another couple of years.

The St. Dom’s girls’ hockey coach is also quite happy that he had her for this campaign, too.

Keaney, a sophomore, played in a backup role as a freshman, and earned her stripes the hard way this season, playing every minute of every game for the Saints as they worked to rebound from one of the tougher season’s in the program’s stories history.

“Nicole is definitely a backbone on this team,” Boucher said. “She’s made some incredible saves this season, and it’s helped us win games and keep things close.”

The Saints finished their 2009-10 regular-season exactly where they finished last season — in third place with seven losses in 18 games. But with Keaney in the cage, Boucher is confident as his team prepares for a rematch of its final regular-season tilt against Leavitt.

“We’ve done well this year away from our home rink, and I think playing on the road may be better for us in the long run,” Boucher said.

As for Keaney, getting through the season has been more about mental preparation than it has been physical.

“I worked on agility and stuff over the summer, of course,” Keaney said, “but the biggest thing for me was mentally being prepared.”

Keaney admitted that last season, she was a bit too tentative.

“It was kind of scary at first,” she said. “but I learned to get more mentally prepared.”

“You could see how nervous she was last year when we put her into a bigger game,” Boucher said. “It’s totally different for her this year. She has a routine she follows every game that helps her get into the flow of things, that gets her where she needs to be.”

The talent, Boucher said, is there.

“It was all about finding that self-confidence,” Boucher said.

“Last year, I’d put myself out of the game if I let one in,” Keaney said. “It’s a big part of the game to be able to handle that.”

The sophomore backstop has seen her fair share of rubber this season, too, far more than she and graduated senior Missy Bourgoin saw last season. That’s just fine with her, though.

“It’s a lot scarier if you don’t get a lot of shots anyway,” Keaney said. “I’d rather have more shots in a game. A good amount anyway, not a crazy amount, just to make sure I’m in it the whole time and not getting zoned out.”

With her focus on mental preparation and a new-found confidence, being “zoned out” appears to be a thing of the past for Keaney. And for St. Dom’s, that means a promising future.

“She needs to maintain that level of confidence in herself, and know that we have confidence in her, too,” Boucher said. “And she’s a sophomore, and that’s comforting to know that we have her here for another two years.”