AUBURN — Cheverus/Windham showed off its scoring depth against St. Dom’s.
Freshman Caroline Rousseau notched a hat trick in an 8-0 victory over the Saints at Norway Savings Bank Arena. Lucy Johnson and Mikayla Talbot each had two goals.
“We definitely started to work as a team,” Talbot said. “It’s the start of the season, so we are trying to figure things out, but moving the puck and finding each other really helps.”
Talbot had a team-high four assists in the contest.
Stags coach Scott Rousseau said he was pleased with the passing in the team’s third game of the season.
“We’ve had a pretty easy first week,” Scott Rousseau said. “We needed to have a little bit of intensity, especially in our cycle game. We haven’t been moving the puck because of bad habits. We wanted to make sure we played with some intensity tonight. I thought we really worked well in the cycle game; most of our offense came off the cycle, with some really nice puck movement.”
The Stags (3-0) have outscored their opponents 26-0 through the first three games.
St. Dom’s coach Paul Gosselin is taking the positives of playing the defending state champions, who return most of the team.
“For us being young, it’s a good learning experience to play like a team like that,” Gosselin said. “There are a lot of lessons to be learned in the sense of positioning, working hard, not giving up on the puck. We are trying to keep that up.”
Talbot opened the scoring in the first two minutes of the game when her shot snuck between the post and Saints goalie Alana Wheeler’s blocker. Caroline Rousseau had the assist.
Charlotte Miller tapped home a pass from Maddie Doherty at the five-minute mark of the first period.
Talbot found Rousseau in front of the net 58 seconds after Miller’s tally.
Gosselin said the Saints (1-2) aren’t used to the speed of the top teams.
“The deal is leaning the positioning at a faster pace,” Gosselin said. “They are having a hard time adjusting to that. When we are playing the faster teams, the positioning gets out of whack. When we are playing a slower team, it’s there. The experience of playing a faster team is going to help them in the long run.”
Johnson scored at the end of the first period for a 4-0 lead.
Rousseau’s backhander from the left circle stretched the advantage to 5-0 early in the second stanza.
Talbot ripped a wrist shot past Wheeler from the left circle 9:40 into the middle frame. Johnson had the assist.
“I was just trusting my teammates, it’s a really great group that moves the puck,” Talbot said. “We really started to find that out tonight.”
Rousseau added her second goal a minute later.
Rousseau buried a slap shot in the slot five minutes into the third period to complete her hat trick and round out the 8-0 advantage.
Caroline is Scott’s daughter.
“We are lucky; we are a very mature team,” Scott Rousseau. “We have five seniors in our top 10 and two juniors, and the only rookie is Caroline Rousseau, who’s kind of been part of the team her whole life. You can be in midseason form pretty quickly.”
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