AUBURN — Wednesday night’s game at Norway Savings Bank Arena showed that two teams can wind up with the same number on the scoreboard, yet see polar-opposite results.

St. Dom’s and Greely both desperately needed a win after battling brutal schedules in the opening month of the boys’ hockey season. Neither got it at the end of a 3-3 deadlock.

That was just fine with the reigning Class B champion Rangers.

“I would have felt tough for the guys had we lost, because they played well enough to win,” Greely coach Barry Mothes said. “It was about effort tonight, and I think the guys delivered.”

The Class A title hopeful Saints’ assessment? Not as glorious.

“I’m pretty indifferent,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “Just like the result, I’m pretty indifferent. It’s disappointing.”

St. Dom’s (2-3-1) fought back three times to preserve the tie, the last on Cam Stewart’s power-play goal with 9:13 remaining in regulation.

Caleb Labrie and Brad Berube each had a short-handed tally prior to that.

“That’s kind of sad that we’ve got to score two short-handed goals to tie it up at 1-1 and to tie it up at 2-2,” Ouellette said. “We knew they were kind of struggling themselves, but it was our home ice and we need a much better effort than that.”

Brian Storey, Galen Arnold and Reid Howland scored for Greely (1-3-2) in support of senior backup goalie Christian Kroot, who made 25 saves.

Kroot was pressed into duty when Kyle Kramlich was ruled unavailable due to an arm injury.

“He probably found out he was playing at about 2 o’clock this afternoon,” Mothes said. “I thought he played a great game, made some great saves. St. Dom’s has some very dangerous attacking forwards. He made some big, big saves, and yeah, we got some breaks with the crossbar, but I thought we had chances at the other end too.”

There were three goals in a 86-second span midway through the first period. Two came from the Rangers, who won an opening stanza for the first time all season.

Storey sent home a blast from the left point after St. Dom’s starting goalie Caleb Dostie made an initial stop. Joe Saffian and Nathan Gervais notched the assists at 6:04.

Labrie tipped in Berube’s pass for the equalizer during a 4-on-5 sequence at 6:43. Greely’s power play continued, however, and Arnold cashed in with help from from Howland and Austen Rogers at 7:30.

“We talked about how we needed to come out and at least tie the first period. Until tonight we had been outscored 15-1,” Mothes said. “To grab a 2-1 lead, it sort of made the statement to ourselves that we can do this.”

Ouellette pulled Dostie in favor of Zach Roy after the Rangers’ second goal.

Roy made eight of his 14 saves in the second period, when the Saints pulled even on an end-to-end rush by Berube at 4:01.

Greely grabbed a 3-2 lead on Howland’s blast at 2:56 of the third. Rogers’ long pass up ice led to the unassisted goal, with the Saints’ defensive help arriving a moment too late.

“He played well,” Ouellette said of Roy. “The one goal he let in was a true sniper’s goal. I think we gave the kid too much room, but he still made a great shot.”

Mitch Lorenz assisted Stewart’s tying goal in the third.

Kroot made four saves and successfully stared down the St. Dom’s power play in overtime. Arnold, Miles Shields, Aidan Black and Saffian provided the penalty-killing support.

The Saints had a 4-1 edge in shots in the eight-minute session, the most threatening bid by Chase Hainey with 1:34 left.

“We’re a young team, and we’ve had some injuries, and for a number of reasons, we just haven’t been able to put together anything close to a complete hockey game,” Mothes said. “To come up here tonight and play three periods and overtime the way we did, I think it’s the type of hockey we can play. This hopefully is the kind of effort that we can build on and say, yes, this is how hard we can compete and keep pushing.”

St. Dom’s schedule has been no more forgiving. The Saints’ losses were to Lewiston, Falmouth and Bangor.

“We currently have only one line that seems to be producing,” Ouellette said. “We need to get back to little things.”

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