SACO — Reigning Class A state runner-up St. Dominic Academy is playing some of its best hockey of the year as the season winds down, and that continued Thursday night against the team the Saints lost to in last year’s Class A boys’ hockey final — Scarborough.

The Saints played arguably their best game of the season, beating the previously undefeated Red Storm 4-2 at OA Sports Center.

“It feels really good,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Parker said. “You work hard in practice to win a game and to give these guys their first loss of the season means a lot to our team and our program.”

The Saints (8-7-1) came out of the gates flying, delivering the game’s first five shots on goal. Yet none found its way in.

On the other end of the ice, the St. Dom’s defense held the Red Storm (13-1-2) without a shot for much of the opening period. Then, Scarborough went on its first power play, and with it came the first three shots for the Red Storm. The trio came in succession, and the final one went in. Colin Hayward put a rebound in by the right post with three minutes left in the first to make it 1-0 for the defending champs.

“We’re used to that. We usually go down 1-0,” Parker said. “We’re in the game. We’re down 1-0. Down 1-0 after one period against a very good hockey team like this is not a bad thing.”

The ice didn’t tilt the same way for the Saints to start the second. Scarborough carried momentum out of the locker room, and put a shot on St. Dom’s goalie Kyle Welsh 15 seconds in. But Welsh denied Jack Callahan at the right post to keep it a one-goal game.

Penalties hurt the Red Storm in the middle period. Three minors were called against the hosts, with the first man-advantage producing a pair of shots and the second producing a goal. Reese Farrell’s shot from the left point was deflected in by Isaac Lapointe five seconds into the power play and tied the game up 1-1 midway through the second.

“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into power play at practice,” Parker said. “To see it bear fruit is cool.”

St. Dom’s was held without a shot on its third power play of the period, and the Red Storm was able to fire on one of its own short-handed. Scarborough turned the momentum of that penalty kill into the go-ahead goal. Cam Smith put in a rebound of a Sam Jacob shot with 80 seconds left in the period.

The Saints answered before the horn, and in similar fashion. Noah Toussaint was in position to control a rebound of a Lapointe shot, then knocked it past Scarborough goalie Ross LeBlond 34 seconds before the intermission.

“We knew we were down, we had to get that goal,” Toussaint said. “Coach told us to crash the net. We crashed the net.”

“Getting a goal like that to tie the game up before we go into the locker room was extremely important and really great for our self-esteem,” Parker said.

The Red Storm came out angry in the third and went on the power play just over two minutes in. That produced two shots, and Scarborough put another one on net before the Saints got their first, but Welsh stopped them all.

Yet another Scarborough penalty was costly with time winding down. Lapointe and Toussaint hooked up again late in the power play. Toussaint sniped a shot into the top-right corner of the goal for the game-winner with just over three minutes to play.

“We had two guys open, and I had my stick on the ground. (Isaac) passed me a great pass and I put it right in,” said Toussaint, who admitted some leftover “hatred” of the Red Storm from last year provided some motivation for the win.

Parker called a timeout immediately after to tell his players “how to close the game.”

The Saints did just that, holding the Red Storm without a shot until Reese Farrell put the game away with an empty-net goal in the final minute.

“I really saw a big chunk of the minutes tonight of the team playing as a unit,” Parker said. “It wasn’t individuals out there playing a hockey game tonight, it was a team with a team goal of winning the game as a team.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com