AUBURN — The St. Dominic/Winthrop/Monmouth girls hockey team got on the board quickly and made the early lead stick against rival Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland on Wednesday.
Behind Isabella Pelletier’s second-minute lamp-lighter and Gabby Allen’s two goals, the Saints defeated the Red Hornets 4-0 at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“For us, it’s more about our young team having confidence and when we get a couple of goals, we play a lot better than when we are down a couple of goals,” Saints coach Paul Gosselin said.
The Saints (5-10) shut out the Red Hornets (1-12) for the second time this season after winning 10-0 on Nov. 30. Abrianna White made 14 saves on Wednesday.
“Overall, it was a very well-played game,” White said. “I think there were a couple of girls get by us (on defense), and that’s fine.”
The Red Hornets were missing some players in the first game, but a had a full lineup this time.
Coach Dana Berube said the Red Hornets played well despite being on the wrong side of the final score.
“I thought we had some good attitude and I thought we kept our emotions in check,” Berube said. “Conversely, I thought we lost some 50-50 battles and we handed the puck over quite a bit. Those are all learning things — getting your head up and making the right decisions with the puck. Overall, we competed and that’s what we hoped for.”
Pelletier gave the Saints the lead 91 seconds into the game when she skated into the offensive zone, cut to the center of the ice from the right circle and her backhander beat Red Hornets goalie Emily Quinnell.
The Red Hornets put five shots on White in the first period. A couple of the chances came on the power play.
Berube was pleased with the shot attempts.
“Some of our girls who don’t get a lot of opportunities as far as shots on net had some good looks,” Berube added. “Their goalie did a good job on the opportunities we had.”
Emily Andrews netted a power-play goal for the Saints early in the second period. She waited near the crease and got the puck past Quinnell. Eighth-grader Aiva Dorman provided the assist.
“Positioning is obviously important. We are looking for rebounds and the girls are starting to get used to that,” Gosselin said. “We are starting to put some in, so that’s good.”
Alyssa Prosser had the Red Hornets’ best chance to score on the power play, but her shot attempt hit the crossbar.
“Alyssa plays hard every shift, every game,” Berube said. “It would have been nice to have that one go in.”
White said she was glad the crossbar got in the way of the shot.
“I am thankful that post was there,” White said. “That was a good one.”
The Saints continued to station in front of the Red Hornets’ crease, as forward Gabby Allen jammed home the puck midway through the stanza to take a 3-0 lead.
Allen said the Saints are more comfortable playing with a three-goal lead than a two-goal lead.
“It was definitely a good lead for us; it gave us momentum, so we weren’t under pressure a lot,” Allen said. “A 2-0 lead is very stressful for us.”
Allen scored her second goal of the game in the third period by putting home a rebound from a Moira Craig shot.
“It really just happened, I saw the puck went out and I saw the goalie was down,” Allen said. “I took a quick release and it went in.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
