AUBURN — The Red Riots’ goalie had the golden glove Wednesday.
South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete senior Liam McGibbon caught a handful of St. Dominic Academy shots, and turned away all 20 he faced in the game, to help the Red Riots to a 3-0 victory in a Class A boys hockey contest.
“This is one of the best games I’ve seen him play,” Red Riots coach Joe Robinson said. “I think that’s his third shutout this year, so he’s playing well, and we’re lucky to have him. He’s a good player.”
A quiet start offensively for both teams turned into a quick two-goal lead for the Red Riots (4-2-1). Gus Lappin took advantage of a St. Dom’s turnover in its own defensive zone and beat Saints (5-3) goalie Alex Roy with a backhand shot 5:37 into the game.
Deven Hannan then pushed through two Saints defenders and slid a shot past Roy 33 seconds later. Dylan Hannan assisted on the goal.
“It’s huge. Whenever you can jump on a team, especially at their own rink, right off the bat, it kind of sits them back on their heels and they got to climb out of a hole,” Robinson said. “Those were really good goals. Especially the second one — Deven splitting the D and getting yanked on, had to fight through, stay with it to the end.”
“It was difficult because the kids didn’t seem to — once that happened they just seemed down, and they couldn’t get themselves back up,” Saints coach Dan D’Auteuil said.
The Saints had a chance to cut into the lead with a power play soon after, but McGibbon denied both Lucas Pushard and Leandro Naous. St. Dom’s ended up taking a penalty of its own late in the man-advantage to stop any chance of gaining momentum.
Roy kept it a two-goal deficit for his team by coming out to make a few saves, with the Red Riots taking eight of their 11 first-period shots after scoring the early goals.
St. Dominic’s Jacob Lewis moves the puck up the ice while being followed by South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete’s Cullen Adams during Wednesday’s night game in Auburn. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
St. Dom’s did better shooting the puck on net in the second period, doubling its output from four to eight, five of those coming from a pair of unsuccessful power plays. Pushard had a solid chance 33 seconds into the frame on a give-and-go with Colin Casserly, but McGibbon made the stop.
“We had a couple chances that kind of boosted them a little, but we just couldn’t seem to break that ice and get any momentum going,” D’Auteuil said.
Lappin thought he had put the nail in the coffin midway through the third period, but his goal with Roy out of the crease was waved off after a miscommunication between the two officials on a delayed icing. Lappin did score his second goal less than two minutes later on the power play, with Austin Gross and Dylan Hannan assisting.
“It was frustrating, but we didn’t let it get us down and we sealed the deal with the power-play goal at the end, which was good,” Robinson said. “Finally put one in there.”
The Red Riots were 1 for 5 on the power play, while St. Dom’s was scoreless on its three chances.
Roy stopped 30 of 33 shots he faced.
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