AUBURN — A pair of freshmen carried the scoring load and led the St. Dom’s boys hockey team to victory Wednesday.
Ben Dumais scored twice and Riley Daigle once as the Saints defeated Bangor 3-1 at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“It shows they are getting more experience, they are getting a little better and they are getting comfortable out there,” St. Dom’s coach Dan D’Auteuil said of Dumais and Daigle. “We have to keep gaining that experience, because we have a lot of young freshmen out there that contribute.”
The Saints, who snapped a three-game losing streak with Wednesday’s win, have eight freshmen on the roster.
Bangor also is a young squad, with eight players who are freshmen or sophomores on the varsity roster.
“We graduated 11 seniors — there were a few guys who were on this team last year and saw the success that we had,” Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said. “We are missing some depth in the scoring department right now, but we are competing and playing hard.
“We are in every game, we don’t give up many goals, defensively we are pretty strong. We just need to put more pucks in the back of the net.”
Goalie Jayden Lynn made 23 saves in net for St. Dom’s.
“I think it boosts my confidence when I have more saves; it helps me,” Lynn said.
The Rams (3-5-1) peppered Lynn early in the game but the junior shut them down each time.
St. Dom’s (5-6) struggled to gain entry in the offensive zone at the beginning of the opening period, but started to take shots on Bangor netminder Liam Doughty (20 saves) midway through the stanza.
Dumais ripped a shot from the slot past Doughty for the game’s first goal 9 minutes, 51 seconds into the first. Curtis Wheeler set up the goal.
Dumais credits Wheeler and Timothee Ouellette for giving him scoring opportunities throughout the game.
“My linemates were forechecking well and winning puck battles,” Dumais said.
St. Dom’s carried the momentum into the ensuing faceoff, and 24 seconds after Dumais’ tally, a shot by Daigle deflected off of a Bangor player and into the goal.
“A puck off a defensemen’s glove, it wasn’t the bounce that we were looking for at that point,” Paradis said. “I thought we played a really good second period. We let the one breakaway go — we have to clean that up. We had the intensity, but we didn’t have enough tonight.”
Dumais netted his second goal on that breakaway early in the second period for a 3-0 St. Dom’s lead.
Bangor scored on the game’s first, and only, power play when Zachary Lindquist jammed the puck past Lynn just past the 10-minute mark of the second. Miles Randall had the assist.
The Saints controlled the bulk of the offensive possession in the third period, due in part to the St. Dom’s centers forcing Bangor into turnovers in its defensive zone.
“We tried to have a high guy in the slot, and it kind of worked because they kept turning it over to us — which helped us keep that pressure,” D’Auteuil said. “They (the centers) did what we asked of them and they played well.”
Bangor pulled Doughty with under two minutes remaining, but the Rams only managed one shot on Lynn while they had the extra skater.
Paradis said the Saints clogged the middle of the ice well.
“They really outworked us in different parts of the ice and it didn’t help,” Paradis said.
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