BIDDEFORD – For a period and a half against St. Dominic on Saturday, the Thornton Academy boys’ hockey team looked mortal.

But then the Trojans hit the gas pedal to pull away for a 6-2 win.

“It was one of those things where, when it was a 3-1 game, we just had to keep executing,” Thornton Academy Coach Jamie Gagnon said. “Luckily we were able to stretch it out a little bit.”

The Saints (7-3) were going shot for shot with the top-ranked Trojans (9-1-1) for the better part of two periods and trailed 3-2 before St. Dominic goaltender Austin Christopher got caught out of the net trying to clear a puck. Thornton’s Greg Lodge sprinted from behind the net with the puck and flipped it into the net with 4:09 to play in the second period.

But the Trojans had more work to do. The Saints came out flying in the third period, hoping to make it a one-goal game again. But Nick Chen stood in front of the Saints’ net and fought to slap the puck into the net for a 5-2 lead, and Bryan Dallaire snuck in a shot for a 6-2 margin in the final minute.

By Thornton standards, it was a close call. The Trojans have won five games by five goals or better this season and entered the game averaging 6.5 goals a game.

St. Dominic Coach Steve Ouellette said he felt like the Saints still had a shot at winning while trailing 4-2 entering the third period — and not every team that plays Thornton feels that way.

“We showed we can play with anybody tonight,” Ouellette said.

“We played with a very experienced team and hung with them. Our goal is always to be competitive. If you look at our schedule, it’s just going to be a battle every night for the rest of the season.”

It was certainly a battle early on Saturday.

The Saints struck first on a redirect by Chris Finlay early in the first period. Then Thornton counterattacked, poking the puck away from the Saints to start odd-man rushes going the other way.

C.J. Maksut of the Trojans scored on a two-on-none breakaway. Lodge trailed behind Maksut and talked to him before he made it 1-1.

“I told him just to take it,” Lodge said. “It was a little confusing for us (having a two-on-none breakaway), but I saw he was clear so I told him just to take it.”

“What we’ve been stressing all year is that good defense leads to good offense,” Gagnon said.

Sometimes it just takes a while to make that happen.