Saint Dominic Academy’s Jaden Webster, left, fires the puck past Kings goalie Dakota Soucy for a goal during Tuesday night’s game at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
AUBURN — Upset-minded Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester finally had momentum, and a whole intermission to figure out what to do with it.
What the Kings didn’t have was an answer when that momentum was quickly erased.
Jacob Lewis scored 15 seconds into the third period to regain St. Dominic Academy’s two-goal lead and the Saints never looked back, scoring twice more for a 5-1 win in a Class A North boys’ hockey quarterfinal at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Saints (9-8-2) had a 2-0 lead with time winding down in the second period until the sixth-seeded Kings (11-8) cut the deficit to one with less than one minute to go before the second intermission.
“They got enthused by their goal, so we had to weather the storm,” Saints coach Bob Parker said.
The Saints actually got behind the 8-ball early in the game with a five-minute penalty kill, albeit one with a two-minute break thanks to a Kings penalty. Goalie Gaston Fuksa had to fend off three shots on goal before play went to 4-on-4, where the Saints outshot the Kings 3-1.
Less than a minute after 5-on-5 play resumed, the Saints got the scoring started. Noah Pratt’s shot from the right point was stopped by Kings goalie Dakota Soucy, but Jaden Webster was at the right post to put home the rebound nine minutes into the game.
“High school hockey is getting — as well as other leagues — just you got to put pucks on net. And you got to go for those rebounds,” Parker said. “I mean, the goalies have lots of good equipment, they’re coming out butterfly, so you have to go to the net. You don’t go to the net, you don’t score.”
That 1-0 score stuck going into the first intermission, with the Saints outshooting the Kings 11-6.
Rebounds were all the rage in the second period. Fuksa had to make a pair of saves 30 seconds in, with the second coming after sliding to stop a rebound attempt. Going the other way, the Saints started mounting pressure on Soucy in the form of shot after shot.
“He played really well the first two periods,” Kings coach Joe Hutchinson said. “He had to make some good saves, and he came up big for us.”
Five Saints shots on goal came in the first 2:30 of the second period, then three more came 30 seconds later. The third, off two rebounds, finally went in.
Soucy stopped one shot at the left post, and the rebound went behind the net. Soucy then stopped Dominic Chasse at the right post before Jeremy Phelan backhanded the loose rebound into the open net.
Austin Taylor had an opportunity to slice that lead in half, but Fuksa stopped Taylor’s mini-breakaway chance, and Taylor’s rebound shot went wide.
“I thought we had some pretty good opportunities in that first two periods, we just couldn’t put the pucks in,” Hutchinson said. “We had some really good looks, and nice rebounds, and we just couldn’t put them through.
Soucy stopped a mini-breakaway moment of his own, poking away Chasse’s chance with 62 seconds left in the period. The Kings went the other way with the puck and used rebounds to get on the board 15 seconds later. A scrum in front of the net resulted in at least one Fuksa save, but Brandon Michaud was able to push the puck past the goalie on a rebound near the left post. Taylor and Nate Marcotte had the assists.
“We had spent the last couple practices working on our 4-on-4 play, and that’s how we got our goal,” Hutchinson said. “Brought the same four guys back out (to start the third) and we got caught reaching there for that puck instead of moving our feet, and he ended up scoring that goal. I was kind of hoping that we’d have a better start.”
Lewis used his defender as a screen and ripped a shot from the middle of the left circle that went over Soucy’s right shoulder to sway momentum in a big way.
“It was a nice shot,” Parker said. “He put it on net and he did his job.”
“That was an uphill battle at that point,” Hutchinson said. “They got the momentum there early in that third and that was hard to come back from.”
Chasse added a goal from Hunter Hughes four minutes in, then Hughes scored himself off an assist from Zack Pelletier just under four minutes after that to complete the scoring.
Chasse was making his return from an injury that caused him to miss much of his freshman season.
“He’s a good player. He handles the puck really well. He’s smart. We’re glad to have him back in the lineup,” Parker said. “He makes our team stronger by being in the lineup.”
Fuksa stopped 15 of 16 shots, including just two in the third period. Soucy made 30 saves.
The Saints, who knocked out the Kings in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year, now advance to Saturday’s regional semifinals, in which they’ll face second-seeded Edward Little at Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
“It’s going to be another game. EL’s going to be tough,” Parker said. “Playing a game today, with meaning, isn’t a bad thing either. Keeps you loose and game-ready.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
Kings’ defenseman Parker Springer, left, and Saint Dominic Academy’s Jeremy Phelan battle for the puck during Tuesday night’s hockey game at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Saint Dominic Academy’s Hunter Hughes, left fires a shot that snuck past Kings goalie Dakota Soucy for a goal during the third period of Tuesday’s playoff game at the Norway Savings Bank Arean in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Kings and Saints players scramble for control of bouncing puck after Kings’ goalie Dakota Soucy, center, made a save during the third period of Tuesday’s playoff game in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
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