AUBURN — The St. Dom’s offense exploded with four goals in five minutes to defeat Edward Little 5-1 in the first round of the Saint Dominic Academy Hockey Christmas Classic tournament Wednesday at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“We had those bounces in the first period and we kept pouring it on,” St. Dom’s coach Dan D’Auteuil said. “They played well.”
Curtis Wheeler had a goal and two assists in the win, while Ben Dumais had a goal and an assist.
Two of Wheeler’s points came in the five-minute spree.
“If they score one, we got to keep grinding in the corners and we have to keep working for the pucks and, yeah, just the goals,” Wheeler said.
The Red Eddies (1-4) controlled the first half of the first period. They got a big stop from Camren Dufour (20 saves), who stopped Wheeler on a breakaway five minutes into the game.
“That was a big stop by Camren on the breakaway,” Edward Little coach Norm Gagne said. “We made too many turnovers, bad passes, making blind passes and we gave them too many opportunities and they capitalized — credit to them. They capitalized on our mistakes.”
Edward Little carried the momentum a few minutes later in the offensive zone when freshman Avery Tyler’s blast beat St. Dom’s (6-1) goalie Jayden Lynn 6:38 into the first period.
The lead didn’t last a minute, as Wheeler got some redemption when he jammed the puck past Dufour at the 7:30 mark.
“I was frustrated at first, but I knew I had to keep going because one play wasn’t going to make the game,” Wheeler said of the missed breakaway. “Later on I kept working and I got a goal.”
D’Auteuil liked how his team responded to the early deficit.
“They kept their heads hung high and kept going at it,” D’Auteuil said. “Sometimes, that first goal, we get a little deflated, but this time they kept pouring it on.”
Spencer Morgan’s wrist shot from the right circle put the Saints up 2-1 just 57 seconds later.
“I was coming down the wing and I passed it back to him,” Wheeler said of Morgan’s goal. “I don’t know what he was going to do. He shot it, it hit the far post and went in. I was excited.”
Connor St. George stripped the puck from an Edward Little defender at the Saints’ offensive blue line, then scored on a partial breakaway 11 minutes into the first period.
Dumais capped the first-period scoring for the Saints at the 12:46 mark for a 4-1 lead.
Edward Little controlled the play in the second period by putting 10 shots on goal, but couldn’t beat Lynn.
“We had a lot of shots and my team helped me keep the puck out of the net,” Lynn said. “We all battled as a team, and we all played well in that game.”
Lynn made 22 saves in the game and was the team’s hardest worker of the contest.
“I like to see a lot of shots because it makes me battle more,” Lynn said. “It makes me more aggressive as the game goes along.”
Gagne said the Red Eddies’ settled down in the second stanza.
“I thought we played a good second period,” Gagne said. “They finally got their stuff together and we outshot them, but their goalie made some great stops. He kept us from generating any offense after that.”
Colton Dionne put home a loose puck from a Wheeler shot in the third period.
It was Dionne’s first career varsity goal. St. George also notched his first career goal.
“He fires everybody up,” D’Auteuil said of Dionne. “He gets big hits out there for us and he got himself a goal, which made everybody go crazy.”
The game counted for both teams in Maine Principals’ Association competition. Their next respective games in the tournament will not. Both teams are scheduled to play out-of-state opponents Thursday afternoon.
Lewiston, which beat Smithfield (Rhode Island) in its tournament opener earlier Wednesday, is also scheduled to play Thursday afternoon. Wins by both St. Dom’s and Lewiston on Thursday would set up a rivalry matchup for the tournament championship Friday.
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