Falmouth’s goalie Julia Bonnvie deflects the puck past St. Dominic’s Gigi Ouellette during Tuesday night’s hockey game in Auburn. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
AUBURN — The way the St. Dominic Academy girls’ hockey team can score goals makes even 5-on-5 play difficult sometimes. To go a player down — or two — makes that task even harder.
Falmouth made its task even harder Wednesday, and the Saints made the Yachtsmen pay twice on the power play in an 8-0 victory at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“We don’t have the same type of team that we’ve had in years past, so our focus hasn’t necessarily been on the special teams,” Falmouth coach Rob Carrier said. “We were able to get away with that for a good two or three-game stretch there that we had at the beginning of the month, but to do it against St. Dom’s, they kind of exposed our lack of practice in that area.”
The two most recent meetings between the teams were also lopsided victories for the Saints (8-2), who beat the Yachtsmen (3-6) 10-2 in last year’s state final and then 6-0 in Falmouth earlier this season. Power-play goals weren’t a huge factor in either of those wins, but converting on the man-advantage got the Saints going Wednesday night. Katya Fons scored the first goal on the power play just over five minutes in, and Avery Lutrzykowski scored her second goal via the man-advantage with less than five minutes left in the first to make it 3-0.
“We’ve been working on that in practice, and I think that it’s definitely coming along,” Saints coach Paul Gosselin said. “The passing was nice, it was crisp, fast, and we had some production out of it, so it was good.”
Lutrzykowski finding the back of the net has been a recurring theme in each of the three meetings. She had a hat trick (and three assists) in the state championship game, then scored five goals earlier this season. She topped both those efforts Wednesday night, totaling six on home ice.
Three of them came in the second period, and she fed Gigi Ouellette for the Saints’ other goal to make it 7-0 after two.
“I think that had a lot to do with her making the adjustments to what we had done in the first period, and I don’t think we did a good enough job making the adjustments to her adjustments,” Carrier said. “She found that extra 10 feet that she needs to get her momentum going, and we can’t have that happen.”
“She’s a gamer. So when the game gets going, she comes to play,” Gosselin said. “And as the intensity picks up so does she. She likes to be right in the middle of it. She likes to play and she plays hard.”
While Lutrzykowski provided much of the scoring, junior defender Emma Theriault did plenty of passing, assisting on six goals, including four of Lutrzykowski’s.
“I just look for the open space,” Theriault said. “Whoever’s there, if they’re open, I’ll give them the puck.”
Theriault also teamed up with senior captain Fons and first-year Hannah Kenney to help senior goalie Payton Winslow shut the Yachtsmen offense down for the second time this season.
“(We just) kind of box them out, make sure there’s no one in the middle. Pick up the man in front of the net,” Theriault said.
Winslow secured the shutout by making 21 saves. Julia Bonnvie stopped 24 of 32 shots for the Yachtsmen.
To go along with Theriault’s six assists, Fons, Lutrzykowski and Callie Samson each had two and Addie Suckow had one for the Saints, who have won five straight after losing two in a row.
“I think we’re finding ourselves,” Theriault said. “We’re still trying to figure everything out, but it’s picking up.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
St. Dominic’s Avery Lutrzykowski shoots the puck at the goal as Falmouth’s Kayla Sarazin watches during Tuesday evening’s hockey game in Auburn. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)St. Dominic’s Avery Lutrzykowski gets tagled up with Falmouth’s goalie Julia Bonnvie during Tuesday evening’s hockey game in Auburn. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)St. Dominic’s Taryn Cloutier keeps control of the puck, while being surrounded by Falmouth’s defensive players, JoJo Kaserman, Bea Johnson and Rachel Morse during Tuesday evening’s hockey game in Auburn. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
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