St. Dominic’s William Fletcher takes the puck down the ice during Wednesday’s hockey game in Auburn. St. Dominic’s Dominic Chasse assists with the play while Edward Little’s Will Cassidy catches up to the play from behind. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
AUBURN — St. Dominic Academy put on quite a show on the opening day of the Christmas Classic tournament that it is hosting, jumping on top of cross-city rival Edward Little and skating away with a 5-1 boys’ hockey victory at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Wednesday.
The first game of the tournament was an MPA Heal points-countable game for both teams, and the Saints (3-2) made sure it did count, putting a couple goals in the back of the net early.
Will Fletcher took a pass from his brother Matt and skated across the blue line and into the slot before firing past Red Eddies (3-2) goalie Devon D’Auteuil just 2:08 into the game. Jaden Webster made it 2-0 less than seven minutes in when he put home a rebound of a Jacob Lewis shot on the power play.
“It was cool to play with my brother. This is the first game this year that he was on my line, and to get that assist was pretty cool,” Will Fletcher said. “But it was huge for the team to just start us off really good, not having to score that first one later in the game, to get it going early on.”
St. Dom’s goalie Alex Roy kept it a 2-0 game when he denied Wesley Clements’ breakaway bid and Tanner Holbrook’s rebound try with just over a minute remaining in the first period.
The Saints looked like they would take a two-man advantage into the first intermission, but a five-minute major turned the game into 4-on-3 to span the break. They still took advantage of the one-man up opportunity, with Lewis putting a rebounded Derek Wolverton point shot past D’Auteuil 68 seconds into the second.
“In the intermission we were discussing what we could do on the 4-on-3, how we were going to handle the puck and stuff,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Parker said. “We drew some stuff up, but to be honest with you, we scored without even going through that. At least we were talking about it and the kids were focused on moving to open space and getting some shots on net. And Jacob went in and tucked in a little rebound there on the corner.”
Roy then stopped three shots in the more than three minutes of EL’s leftover extended power play.
Much of the period featured back-and-forth action until the Saints struck again with less than three minutes to go. Lucas Pushard got a hold of a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated in and went bar-down with a shot above D’Auteuil.
The Red Eddies ended the shutout with 1:15 to go before the intermission. Jack Keefe snuck a rebound chance past Roy after he stopped Logan Alexander’s initial shot.
Another St. Dom’s five-minute major gave the Red Eddies a chance early in the third, but Roy made 12 saves to keep the score 4-1.
“I thought that in the third period we started to get some momentum and Roy came up big. I mean, he made some big, big stops for them,” EL coach Norm Gagne said. “There was one I thought for sure that was in, and he flashed that pad out the last (second) — we had an open net, I thought it was in.”
Wolverton rounded out the scoring in the final minute with the Saints’ third power-play goal in as many tries.
Roy stopped 27 of 28 shots, while D’Auteuil made 21 saves for EL, which has dropped two straight after starting 3-0. The Red Eddies’ next countable game is at Lewiston on New Year’s Day.
“It seemed like when the puck was dropped we lost all concept of what we were supposed to be doing,” Gagne said. “We didn’t play with a lot of poise and composure tonight, and it showed. It looked like we had stage fright, and we played like we had stage fright.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
St. Dominic’s Derek Wolverton looks to pass the puck during Wednesday’s hockey game in Auburn. Edward Little’s Gunnar Winslow keeps the pressure on. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
Edward Little’s Colin Merritt takes the puck around the back of the goal while being chased by St. Dominic’s Dominic Chasse during Wednesday’s hockey game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
Edward Little’s Logan Alexander unsuccessfully shoots against St. Dominic’s Alex Roy during Wednesday’s hockey game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
Edward Little’s goalie Devon D’Auteuil unsuccessfully defends the goal against St. Dominic’s Jacob Lewis during Wednesday’s hockey game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
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