St. Dom’s overcame all of those and more to rally from a two-goal deficit in the third period but ultimately fell to Falmouth, 5-3, in both teams’ opener at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Andrew Emple’s goal with 7:55 remaining proved to be the game-winner. Andre Clement added the exclamation point with an empty-netter with 1:01 to go.

“(St. Dom’s is) always a well-coached team, always disciplined, and you’ve got to come up here to play to win,” Falmouth coach Deron Barton said. “If you don’t, they’ll beat you.”

Falmouth set the Saints back on their heels by striking quickly in each period. They took the early lead on Alden Bohrmann’s goal 13 seconds into the game’s first power play and four minutes into the game. Falmouth made it 2-0 58 seconds into the second period when a St. Dom’s defender whiffed on the puck. Kris Samaras collected it inside the blue line skated in all alone to beat helpless Saints goalie Austin Christopher.

“There were a couple of young mistakes,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “We had seven sophomores in the lineup and even though some of them played last year, it’s not like they logged a lot of minutes.”

The Saints were also minus forwards Calvin Stewart (injury) and Dylan Pratt (illness).

Junior Chase Hainey got the Saints on the board 42 seconds after Samaras’ goal to make it 2-1. St. Dom’s got physical after that and outshot the Yachtsmen, 10-7, in the period, but also lost sophomore defenseman Matt Chasse for the bulk of the period with a 10-minute misconduct penalty for checking from behind.

Falmouth immediately grabbed momentum 13 seconds into the third period on Hugh Grygiel’s backhander for a 3-1 lead. St. Dom’s ripped it right back 1:16 later on Hainey’s back-hander. Caleb Labrie tied it at 3:06 by punching home a rebound of a Kyle Holtet shot.

“We were caught a little off, a little surprised at times out there, a little lazy,” Barton said. “We gave them some opportunities that they capitalized on.”

Emple’s game-winner came from the right point with Christopher apparently screened.

The Saints had a chance to get the equalizer on the power play with 3:53 left but couldn’t get a shot on goal after calling a time out.

Christopher kept it a one-goal game with a nice stop on a point-blank bid by Samaras, who  skated in all alone on a between-the-skates pass from Grygiel.

Samaras was ejected for a hit from behind with 1:11 remaining, giving the Saints a 6-on-4 after they pulled Christopher, but Clement scored the insurance goal 10 seconds later.

“Even though it’s a loss, it’s a quality loss,” Ouellette said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to be fine.”