St. Dom’s Jacob Lewis jousts with Cole Stetson of Greely during their game Wednesday at Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn.
AUBURN — St. Dominic Academy’s lone senior, Mack Pelletier, saved his team from a defeat on his senior night Wednesday.
Pelletier scored on a power play with 2:24 left in regulation and the Saints held on in overtime to secure a 1-1 tie with Greely in a boys’ hockey clash at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“I just wanted to get it on net, honestly,” Pelletier said. “The goalie was moving over and I had to settle the puck, so just trying to get it top corner or get a rebound off his pads to put it back in the slot. Pretty exciting.”
The Saints (8-8-2) somehow survived the first period, despite getting outshot on goal 7-1 and having to kill off an early penalty. Gaston Fuksa in goal had something to do with that, denying a few point-blank chances by the Rangers (15-2-1).
“Greely’s a really good team. They have a history of scoring a lot of goals in the first period,” Saints coach Bob Parker said. “Our goal, objective, was to batten down the hatches and weather the storm, get used to the talented forwards that they have, try to get some shots on their really good goalie, and I thought we accomplished that.”
Fuksa was left helpless when the Rangers scored just 21 seconds into the second period. Jackson Williams took an offering from Jake MacDonald in the slot and quickly fired a shot past the Saints goalie.
“We had talked after the first period — we’ve been talking for many weeks, all season — just trying to get pucks to the net a little bit more consistently. We tend to play maybe a little too much on the perimeter sometimes, and look for the perfect play,” Greely coach Barry Mothes said. “And right on that first shift Jake MacDonald did a nice job just kind of spinning around, throwing it to the net from a bad angle, and it popped out into the low slot, and Jackson Williams converted.”
The Saints went on their first power play just over two minutes later, and while they only put one shot on goal they gained some needed offensive momentum that propelled them to three more in the first half of the period. A second power play late in the frame netted four more shots on goal, including three in a short span that gave Greely goalie Karsten Bourgoine a workout.
“We moved the puck well on the power play tonight, and we just continued that on over to the 5-on-5 and we made it like a power play at some points during the game,” Pelletier said.
Fuksa made a difficult save of his own, stopping Andy Moore with a sprawled out skate in the final minute of the period to keep it a 1-0 game heading into the third.
The theatrics continued for Fuksa to start the third. He stopped a point-blank chance by Quinn Molloy from Moore 90 seconds in.
“He made about, what, four or five really good saves throughout the whole game?” Parker said.
“On certain other nights some of the chances we had we might have had three or four, possibly, but credit to their goaltender,” Mothes said.
The Saints offense came alive again five minutes into the frame, and they sent three shots at Bourgoine, then two more a few moments later. They had seven shots on goal in the period before starting a 5-on-3 with 4:15 remaining in regulation. Parker called a timeout when the Saints went two-men up, and they put two more shots on Bourgoine with that double advantage. Bourgoine stopped both, but Pelletier got loose on the 5-on-4 and tied the game.
“The 5-on-3, it’s a tricky situation, and honestly we don’t practice it enough,” Parker said. “We should. But the kids were moving it around, they all want to move the puck, they don’t mind moving the puck, and it happened to be Mackie that put it in. He had a nice shot.”
Pelletier’s goal was assisted by Jacques Ouellette and Derek Wolverton.
The Saints had to survive 61 seconds of a Ranger power play just to get to overtime. Fuksa made one big save with 15 seconds left, then another with 2.3 to go.
The onslaught continued into the overtime period, but Fuksa and the St. Dom’s defense held strong to kill off the penalty. The Rangers doubled-up the Saints in shots on goal in the extra session, 8-4, but both teams skated off with a draw.
Fuksa stopped 29 of 30 shots, while Bourgoine turned away 23 of 24.
“I wanted to be aggressive. We’re sort of an aggressive team. I think that’s kind of our make-up. And I thought that produced some good pressure in the overtime,” Mothes said. “I just wish we could have converted. That would have been nice, but it’s okay.
“I just told the guys ‘this was a really good high school hockey game.’ Good to get up here on the road and play St. Dom’s to close out the regular season.”
The Rangers had all but punched their ticket as the top seed in Class B South coming in, but the Saints were trying to solidify their spot in Class A North.
“We treated it from the opening faceoff as a playoff game, mentally, and kept on encouraging these guys to play like it’s a playoff game, and to keep working,” Parker said.
“I’m just happy we came back and tied it, honestly. A tie is good enough for me in the overtime. I’m happy with it,” Pelletier said. “This is huge. This is a huge momentum-swinger for us after losing a couple games. Get back on track.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
St. Dom’s forward Mack Pelletier scores the tying goal against Greely goalie Karsten Bourgoine during their game Wednesday at Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn.
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