St. Dom’s knows how Thornton Academy felt a year ago.

It’s the same feeling the Saints have now.

“Thornton is 19-1-1, or whatever it is now,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “Not only that, they’ve been putting up seven, eight goals a game, whether it’s a strong opponent or not. They’re very dangerous. They have 13 or so seniors who have been playing together for a long time, They’re the defending state champs. I guess the more I look at it, yeah, we are the underdogs, kind of like them last year with Lewiston.”

Eastern Class A champion St. Dom’s will square off against Western Class A champion — and defending Class A state champion — Thornton Academy on Saturday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, where the Saints will try to win a 25th overall Class A state crown, but a first since back-to-back titles in 1999-2000.

St. Dom’s and Thornton Academy played two of the toughest schedules of any school in Maine this season, and both navigated that schedule in their own way. The Saints won 12 regular season games and lost six times. Four of those losses (and also four wins) were by a single goal, and they’ve won consecutive one-goal contests in the playoffs, allowing only one goal against in those games against East No. 2 Bangor and East No. 1 Lewiston.

St. Dom’s has an impressive goals-for-to-goals-against total of 77-42 in 21 games, nearly 2-to-1.

More astounding still, is Thornton’s total: 146-30, nearly 5-to-1. Since a 6-2 victory over St. Dom’s on January 28, the Trojans have scored either seven or eight goals in each of their 10 games while allowing more than two just once, that in the Western A final, an 8-4 victory over Falmouth.

Team offense

Depth has been the key to the Trojans’ continued success. C.J. Maksut leads all Class A players in scoring this season with 29 goals and 26 assists for 55 points, but with as many goals as the Trojans scored, he isn’t the only one doing the damage. Forward-turned-defenseman Bryan Dallaire has 15 goals and 51 points, Andrew Carignan notched 20, Nick Chen and Robbie Downing added 17 each and Greg Lodge another 13.

“We definitely have goal-scorers throughout the lineup,” Gagnon said. “They’re all bought into the system, and it’s made us a much more diverse and deep team up front. And, the guys on the back end have really stepped up and helped out on offense, as well.

“If we ever get caught depending on one or two guys, or even one or two lines, that’s where we get into trouble,” Gagnon added.”We really need to focus on getting continuity throughout the lineup.”

St. Dom’s has only two skaters with more than 10 goals on their resume in Cody Rodrigue (12) and Chris Finlay (10), and the Saints combined to score 69 fewer goals than the Trojans. But of the 77 the Saints did score, 13 different skaters scored them.

“It has been balanced. We have a little bit of everything,” Ouellette said.

Team defense

Where the Saints did excel is on the back end, particularly down the stretch. In 10 games since its last meeting with Thornton, St. Dom’s allowed only 12 goals and rarely allowed more than 20 shots on goal in those games, lending credence to a renewed commitment to a defense-first mentality.

“Honestly, it started with our loss to Thornton,” Ouellette said. “When we lost 8-1, we looked back at the video one night. We knew our mentality had to be defense first. Yes, we have some nice players who are strong offensively, but we just don’t have kids who scored 20 or 20 goals, we just don’t.”

The Saints’ commitment to defense didn’t go unnoticed by their opponents, either. After the Eastern A final against Lewiston, Blue Devils’ head coach Jamie Belleau praised the Saints’ ability to play such solid defense, calling it “impressive.”

Gagnon and the Trojans have noticed, as well.

“I think what’s most impressive to me this year was their ability, desire and success committing to the defensive end,” Gagnon said. “Their compete level throughout the lineup and their team’s commitment to playing solid defense is impressive.”

Not that Thornton Academy is a slouch on the defensive end in its own right, having allowed only 30 goals in 21 games.

“Their defense, it’s hard to say,” Ouellette said. “How much defense have they had to play? A lot of teams haven’t been able to consistently put pressure on them.”

Team goaltending

Thornton Academy goalie Jay Finch was a big reason for the Trojans’ success in the Class A title game in 2011. With Finch graduated, the load shifted onto the shoulders of Joe Ferrante. All the senior has done so far is post a 19-1-1 record with a 1.20 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage.

“He’s been great all year,” Gagnon said. “It’s easy to lose sight of his ability with the goals we’ve scored, but there have been times this year where he’s helped us by making sure we didn’t lose momentum when games were closer.”

The Saints counter with a two-headed goaltending monster in Austin Christopher and Grant Carrier. Christopher started the first two playoff games for the Saints, and allowed only three goals. Carrier got the call in the Eastern A final against Lewiston, and he pitched a 1-0 shutout.

“There are subtleties, some differences,” Ouellette said. “I don’t know, maybe we’ll have to change them up on the fly like players, I don’t know.”

“One of the things that will make it difficult for us to prepare is the fact that they have two very good goalies,” Gagnon said. “They’ve shown confidence in both goaltenders, and with good reason. They’ve both played very well all season, and both have played well in the playoffs, as well. To earn a shutout in a regional championship game is impressive. We certainly respect that part of their game.”

Both Carrier and Christopher went 6-3 during the regular season. Carrier stopped 171 of 191 shots, while Christopher stopped 173 of 192.

Intangibles

The venue for Saturday’s state title game would, on the surface, appear to favor St. Dom’s. As the representative from Eastern Maine, the Saints will be the home team at a rink they regularly call home.

But Thornton Academy doesn’t exactly have a problem playing at the Colisee. Since the beginning of last year’s playoffs, the Trojans are 7-0 at the Lewiston rink.

“Just the history and tradition at this rink, I think everybody gets up for playing here. It’s just such a great venue,” Gagnon said.

As the head coach and then later an assistant at Biddeford, Gagnon was also part of three state championship runs at the Colisee with the Tigers.

And then there is the tradition. The Saints have won more state championships than anyone else in Maine with 24. A new, large black and white banner hanging in the rafters at the Colisee reminds any team that skates there of that fact. Almost as importantly, it serves as a reminder to the Saints themselves.

“It’s always nice, the history part, in that we hear a lot of good words from a lot of alumni out there,” Ouellette said. “Coming into a game like this, it’s always nice.”

Faceoff for Saturday’s Class A state final is slated for 6 p.m.