St. Dom’s goalie Matthew Gosselin stops 10 shots and wins a shutout against Biddeford/Massabesic/Old Orchard Beach.
St. Dom’s and Biddeford/Massabesic/Old Orchard Beach utilized Wednesday’s ordinary season challenge, a rematch of last season’s Class A young men hockey state title game, to get ready for the up and coming postseason.
Lucas Pushard scored twice and had a help for the Saints in a 3-0 triumph over the Tigers.
For St. Dom’s (12-4-0, Wednesday’s down was tied in with getting pucks into the objective.
“We are continuing to skate and shoot,” St. Dom’s coach Daniel D’Auteuil said. “The kids are starting to listen, and we had 45 shot (attempts), which is our highest shot total all year. One of the things we asked them to do is shoot the puck — they were shooting it.”
The Saints worked all week practically speaking at getting more shots inside the circles.
The Tigers (4-9-3), in the interim, were centered around adjusting things before their first season finisher matchup in the not so distant future.
“Here’s the thing, it’s a wide-open playoff, if we can hone in on a couple things,” Tigers coach Jason Tremblay said. “You got Lewiston and got the rest of the league. Anybody can beat anyone, I think.”
Tremblay needs his group to keep on restricting adversaries’ shots all things considered.
Pushard opened the scoring a little past the five-minute characteristic of the opening time frame with an unassisted objective, the solitary objective of the main casing.
“He has been dominating all year for us. He has been that little spark plug, getting those goals for us,” D’Auteuil said. “It’s a big plus when you have that type of character on your team.”
Pushard pushed the Saints’ lead to 2-0 from the get-go in the subsequent period. Tigers goalie Gavin Sperlich (22 recoveries) kicked out a Zackary Pelletier shot right to Pushard, who discharged the puck in the objective. Miles Frenette had the auxiliary help on the objective.
“We knew we just had to play our game, we knew their defensemen were kind of slow,” Pushard said. “We knew we had to play with our pace and tempo, get pucks deep, work our lines, and we worked hard.”
Tremblay said Sperlich may need that subsequent objective back, yet included that if not for the goalie’s play, the Tigers wouldn’t have been in the game as long as they were.
“He did a good job tonight, getting pucks to the corner and stuff like that,” Tremblay said. “We ask a lot from him sometimes in man defense and stuff like that.”
The third time frame began with Biddeford on the strategic maneuver, during which they discharged four shots on Saints goalie Matthew Gosselin (10 recoveries).
With around 40 seconds staying on the strategic maneuver Tremblay called break with the plan not exclusively to recover the group in the game, however to keep on chipping away at certain things with the end of the season games coming up.
“We are in a spot where we are going to finish in the bottom half (of the standings), maybe being on the road for the prelim round,” Tremblay said. “You got to continue to coach. If you don’t you will be gone in the first round.”
Trembay had the Tigers keep on chipping away at situational hockey when he pulled Sperlich with St. Dom’s driving 3-0 with under two minutes staying on the strategic maneuver.
The Tigers were 0-for-2 on the man advantage.
Pushard set up the Saint’s last objective in the third time frame while, during a strategic maneuver, his shot was avoided in the wrinkle and Pelletier stuck the puck home with five or more minutes staying in the game.
St. Dom’s went 1-for-3 on strategic maneuvers.
