AUBURN — The Ice Cats are on fire.
Saturday night, Lake Region/Fryeburg Academy/Oxford Hills won its fifth straight game, defeating St. Dominic Academy 3-2 in boys hockey action at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“It’s a win, so it counts, but I think effort-wise, we were lacking,” Ice Cats coach Wayne Neiman said. “(We weren’t) firing on all cylinders, it’s a win, but there’s a lot of work we need to do. St. Dom’s is a good program, they have always been a good program and have a great head coach. Even though they have young guys, we knew they were going to work for it.”
Caleb Micklon scored the game-winning goal and had an assist.
“It feels so good to beat them,” Micklon said. “We hadn’t beaten them in my career and to get the game-winning goal is amazing.”
St Dom’s coach Dan D’Auteuil said the winless Saints (0-6) are making progress despite the losses.
“We have to clean that up a bit and get a little more accurate on our shots, but we get more shots, which is key for us,” D’Auteuil said. “We got more pressure, we got more sustained pressure. Like I told them after the game, we are building blocks, we are building a little more, getting a little closer. It’s going to come; it’s going to come with time.”
The Ice Cats (6-1) jumped out to a 1-0 lead with 3:18 remaining in the first period when Jacob Lemery made a pass from the right circle to the slot, where Wyatt Knightly fired the puck past Saints goalie Jayden Lynn.
Neiman said getting a shot from the high slot is a designed play.
Miles Frenette tied the game 1-1 for the Saints (0-6) by skating end-to-end and beating Ice Cats goalie Noah Grant low blocker.
The Ice Cats took a 2-1 lead with 15 seconds remaining in the first period on a goal by Neil Heath.
“That was huge. (Heath) is a freshman, and the past couple of games he stepped it up tremendously for us,” Neiman said. “He has added more depth for us and that was a goal that we needed to kind of set the tone.”
Timothy Ouellette tied the game for St. Dom’s early in the second period with a slap shot from the right circle.
“We told them to shoot high and we got two goals (shooting high),” D’Auteuil said. “He did it, he listened, and he had a couple of other chances, too. He was flying out there.”
Micklon scored with a shot in the slot to give the Ice Cats a 3-2 lead in the third period.
“I was just sitting in the high slot, and they didn’t have anybody there all game,” Micklon said.
With a little over five minutes remaining in the game, Ouellette collided with the Ice Cats’ Matt Aker at full speed and Ouellette couldn’t get up. Aker was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
D’Auteuil believes Ouellette injured his left thigh.
“Tim is a big leader on our power play and it messed up our who power play, and we were missing Arvid (Andersson),” D’Auteuil said. “He’s another big component to (the power play). It was really a mixed-up group out there and it really showed. “They weren’t ready to play in different spots, which falls on us as coaches. We didn’t have them ready for those different circumstances.”
The Saints’ power play was short-lived when Frenette took a minor for roughing with 2:22 remaining in the game.
Grant made 29 saves in the victory and Lynn made 21 saves in the loss.
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