St. Dominic Academy junior Avery Lutrzykowski (11) hits the puck just to the left of Falmouth goalie Julia Bonnvie for a goal Tuesday night in Falmouth. St. Dominic Academy won 6-0. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)
FALMOUTH — St. Dominic Academy couldn’t get anything going early, despite setting up shop in Falmouth’s end. Then Avery Lutrzykowski got going, and she didn’t stop until the Saints had the game firmly in hand.
The Saints’ dynamic junior forward scored a hat trick in the first period and put in the team’s first five goals in a 6-0 girls’ hockey victory at Family Ice Center on Tuesday night.
The rematch of last year’s state championship was similar to the title game, with St. Dom’s grabbing control and never letting go. Falmouth junior goalie Julia Bonnvie and the Yachtsmen (0-3) defense did their best to keep the Saints (2-0) out early, but Lutrzykowski finished off a feed from Emma Theriault just under nine minutes in to break the ice.
“They definitely clogged the middle up well. I think we’d have had a lot more opportunities if it wasn’t for that,” Saints coach Paul Gosselin said. “I think they’ve got a fairly new goalie, so they really work at protecting the the middle. There isn’t a lot of room out there, so you really got to zig-zag through to get your shots off.”
Lutrzykowski lit the lamp again at the 10-minute mark on a breakaway, then finished her first-period hat trick 44 seconds later after winning her own faceoff to Bonnvie’s right. It took just 1:48 for the game to go from scoreless to 3-0 St. Dom’s.
“I thought the first five minutes were great for us. We didn’t really allow any quality scoring chances. But then the next five minutes after that we gave up three goals that we really shouldn’t have,” Falmouth coach Rob Carrier said.
Without an ice-cleaning break between the first and second periods, Lutrzykowski stayed hot, scoring her fourth goal of the game 2:11 in (again from Theriault) to make it 4-0. Goal No. 5 came less than five minutes in.
“Definitely scoring a goal gets your adrenaline up, and you just want to go out and score another and another,” Lutrzykowski said.
“She’s a nifty player,” Carrier said. “Any time you give her more than three feet of space, you’re asking for trouble.”
Callie Samson completed the scoring late in the second period with an unassisted goal.
Lutrzykowski picked up where she left off in the Saints’ season opener, when she scored four goals. She also ended last season with a hat trick in the state final win against Falmouth.
Other than the jerseys the teams wore, not much was the same for a rematch, according to Carrier.
“The girls didn’t look at it as a rematch,” Carrier said.
Gosselin agreed.
“It’s a new year, new players, new place. We didn’t treat it as if last year was an issue. We treated it the same we always do — come to play, come to play hard, and that’s what we did,” Gosselin said.
Bonnvie finished with 26 saves for the Yachtsmen, while Payton Winslow stopped all 10 shots she saw for the shutout.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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