AUBURN — Having eight days to stew over a tough home loss to Bangor left Edward Little even hungrier.

It showed Wednesday.

After finding their legs and asserting themselves territorially over the first 10 minutes, the Red Eddies popped in a pair of goals late in the first, added another early in the second and pounded South Portland with shot after shot, skating off with a 7-0 victory over the Red Riots at Ingersoll Arena.

“The fact that we hadn’t played in a week had me concerned,” EL coach Craig Latuscha said. “We started off really flat, really slow, but we got it together and got an important win.”

EL is sitting comfortably in the top five in Eastern Class A through about a third of the season, and had won two in a row prior to the loss against Bangor.

The Eddies preyed on South Portland’s lack of depth all night. The Riots dressed only 12 skaters and one goalie for the contest, and between the physical play and speed EL threw at them, it was tough to maintain any pressure at all.

“They were a little shorthanded for whatever reason, and they seemed to get a little bit tired,” Latuscha said. “Ultimately, that’s probably what cost them.”

EL’s dominance was visible on the score sheet, and in the “shots” column. The Eddies outshot the Red Riots 51-7 on the contest, and three of South Portland’s first four shots came from outside the blue line.

“We were playing pretty good defense out there, and we were staying out of the penalty box,” Latuscha said. “Discipline is going to win games. Our defense shut them down, we kept them out of the middle.”

The Eddies dominated the first period of play, yet the Red Riots nearly escaped the period locked in a 0-0 tie.

Nearly, but not quite.

A perfect faceoff win and first pass by Brendon and Jared Pelletier set up Drew Lupardo at the top of the left circle. His shot from there hit a defender in front, then the goalie’s left pad before trickling over the line to put EL on top 1-0 at 10:23 of the opening stanza.

A hooking call to the Riots about a minute later set up another EL tally in the period’s waning minutes, this a Brandon Pelletier to Jared Pelletier connection that Jared finished with a short-side shot from in close.

EL added another quickly in the second as Matt Berube let a long shot go that hit South Portland keeper Jared Wood and ricocheted into the cage.

“We didn’t allow them to gain any momentum there,” Latuscha said.

EL added a fourth tally at 13:02 of the middle frame as Adam Lebrun stuffed home a loose puck in the crease on a power play.

Danny Poisson added a pair in the third period and Jared Pelletier tacked on another, as well, to cap the scoring.