LEWISTON — The state’s highest-scoring team during the regular season was held in check through two periods in the girls’ hockey state championship game Saturday night.
Then, St. Dominic Academy got a shot in the arm from two power plays to rally past Scarborough and win its second state title, 2-1, at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“The nerves were good. The resolve was there,” St. Dom’s coach Paul Gosselin said. “We just talked about shooting more pucks, and getting to the net, making sure we take advantage of any rebounds. We wanted to make that adjustment. We had some chances, luckily we had two power-play goals, and they came through.”
The North regional champion Saints (19-2) fired 18 shots unsuccessfully on net in the first two periods.
The first one of the third period went in.
Avery Lutrzykowski found Kristina Cornelio in front of the net on a power play two minutes in, and Cornelio finally solved Scarborough goalie Mckenzie Cormier.
The goal came 53 seconds into the man-advantage — and 53 seconds after Gosselin used his timeout.
“Nothing about calming down. Just reiterating what we work on in practice, and it came through very well,” Gosselin said.
Izzy Frenette echoed the sentiment that the Saints work on power plays nearly every practice. Then Frenette — like Lutrzykowski and Cornelio, just a freshman — went out and made a play all her own for the game-winning goal.
Frenette carried the puck into the zone, went left, then looped around toward the goal before firing a shot past Cormier with just over five minutes to play.
“I could see Kritsina to my left, and I saw Bugsy (Hammerton) and Avery to my right, so I knew that if I put it on net it would either go in or there’d be a rebound,” Frenette said.
The Saints were forced to kill a penalty — a five-minute major on Callie Samson for hitting from behind. The South regional champion Red Storm (18-2-1) were got off two shots before star Sami Shoebottom went off for a checking minor. By the time Shoebottom came back on the ice — with just 51 seconds to play — Scarborough had no comeback left.
“We were pretty nervous,” Frenette said, “but we knew that they were going to try to float Shoebottom, and they were just going to feed her the puck, so to stay on her and to make sure that when she got the puck we pressured her.”
The Saints celebrated their second state title when the horn sounded, mobbing goalie Payton Winslow in her crease as the Saints’ faithful celebrated.
Shoebottom scored on Scarborough’s first shot nearly 12 minutes into the game. Meanwhile, Cormier stopped 10 St. Dom’s shots in the first period and eight more in the second.
“All season she’s been really solid,” Scarborough coach Caitlin St. Amour said of Cormier. “She let everybody know who she was tonight.”
Gosselin knew Shoebottom — one of the state’s premier players — was good, but saw with his own eyes just how good with that first shot.
“When she shoots she can zing,” Gosselin said. “First time we played against her, and she let a rocket go off.”
The Saints and Red Storm didn’t meet during the regular season. Their three combined losses were all to Greely, so Saturday night presented a new challenge for each contender.
Scarborough’s upperclassmen won the program’s only state title two years ago. That same year. St. Dom’s played a JV schedule, with only senior captain Tia Rotolico and junior Lexi Kesaris on that squad.
Most of the Saints’ roster is made up of a talented class of freshmen. Despite their youth, the players came into the season with high expectations.
“We knew that if we worked hard we would be able to make it and have a shot,” Frenette said.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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