LEWISTON — Even backstopping his team to a state championship game couldn’t guarantee Kyle Welsh the starting goaltender job for St. Dominic Academy at the start of this season.

He had to earn it.

He did.

“There was no promise at the beginning of the season,” Welsh, a junior, said. “We were all pretty much neck and neck. We had an equal chance to get here.”

“We” includes senior goalies Ridge Servidio and Alex Michaud, the same two teammates that Welsh beat out last year for the starting job before minding the net all the way to the Class A state final.

Welsh finds himself in a similar boat this year — smack dab in the middle of a playoff run as the Saints’ starting goalie.

Yet, there are some differences. For one, Welsh had to outplay a new coach to earn the No. 1 spot.

First-year St. Dom’s coach Bob Parker had seen Welsh play last year a few times between his duties as the Saints’ JV coach. Parker said Welsh was a young gun in net as a sophomore.

That young gun had a lot to prove to his new coach, however.

“I knew, basically, taking the job that I was going to be tested on … which way we were going to go on goalies,” Parker said.

The three-way competition lasted halfway into the season before Welsh was finally deemed the No. 1 option.

“A decision was made based on his skill set and his winning ability,” Parker said of Welsh. “But the other goalies would probably start for other teams, most other teams in the league.”

“It was definitely tough. They put up a good show,” Welsh said of the goaltending battle. “I definitely wouldn’t be here without the competition. It definitely made me strive to be where I am.”

Parker pointed to Welsh’s ability to handle rebounds as one thing that gave him a leg up.

Welsh’s ability to rebound emotionally has also served him well.

Case in point is the Saints’ two regular-season matchups against Lewiston. Welsh lasted just five minutes into the first meeting before being taken out with three goals against on just five shots faced. Servidio finished the game in a 6-1 loss.

The result was the same the second time around — another loss — but Welsh and the Saints put up a fight in a 3-2 setback.

Parker said Welsh “carried his team quite a bit on his back” in the second Lewiston game.

Welsh, and the team as a whole, showed marked improvement in two games against Scarborough. The Saints opened the season with a 3-1 loss to the same team that beat them in last year’s state championship. A late-season rematch at the Red Storm’s home rink went 4-2 in favor of the Saints, who dealt Scarborough its first loss of the season.

Beating the Red Storm felt “really good … no matter how it came,” Welsh said.

Still, it couldn’t ease the pain of a double-overtime loss in the state final.

“That was probably one of the toughest things I’ve done in hockey to date,” Welsh said of that loss. “Just going into the game we felt great, we were a great team, we were on high spirits. Just letting that one goal in, I don’t know, it sucked.

“It still hurts. It’s probably going to be the one goal that sticks with me for the rest of my life. I can still picture it right now. It’s just something you got to deal with and move on.”

Welsh did move on, and so did the other returning players to this year’s team, who were motivated by the loss. Welsh admitted this year’s team didn’t have the same hype as last year’s, yet the Saints find themselves one win away from getting back to the state final.

It took a win over rival Edward Little in the regional semifinals to grant St. Dom’s a third date with Lewiston. Welsh stopped 12 of 13 shots against the Red Eddies, and earned some praise from EL coach Craig Latuscha after that game, who said Welsh came up big when he needed to.

He’ll need to again Tuesday night when the Saints and Blue Devils square off. Welsh stopped Lewiston in this spot a year ago, and showed his worth in games against the other three Class A teams still alive in this year’s playoffs — Lewiston, Scarborough and Falmouth.

“I hope he continues that trend,” Parker said of Welsh playing big in big games. “We have confidence in Kyle. We believe in him. And I’m sure he’s going to do a fantastic job tomorrow.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com