St. Dominic/Lisbon’s Gabby Allen battles for control of the puck with Lewiston/Oak Hill/Mt. Ararat/Morse’s Abigail Titus during a Dec. 18 game in Auburn. Allen is one of the Saints’ three seniors, who will be honored at the boys team’s senior night after the girls program had to end its season early due to multiple injuries. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

The St. Dominic/Lisbon girls hockey team is ending its season with five games remaining on its schedule due to multiple injuries on an already thin roster.

Head coach Paul Gosselin said the decision wasn’t a total surprise because the Saints (2-11) began the season with only 11 players.

“It didn’t happen all at once. We had a short bench to begin with, so we knew that there was the potential that this could happen, either through sickness or injury,” Gosselin said. “Then we had one of the girls get hurt, so that put a little bit of strain on the others, but they answered the call fairly well.”

The Saints will forfeit their final five games, including Wednesday’s against the Penobscot Pioneers and matchups with Twin City rivals Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland/Monmouth/Oxford Hills on Jan. 27 and Lewiston/Oak Hill/Mt. Ararat/Morse on Jan. 29.

Gosselin said the two most recent injuries — suffered in the Saints’ most recent game, a 5-2 loss to the Edward Little co-op last Wednesday — took two athletes off the ice, making it no longer safe to finish out the season.

“We’ve played short all year, played a little bit shorter, and the attitude was good; they still did pretty well,” Gosselin said. “And then, unfortunately, the last game, we had two more injuries come through, a broken finger and a broken collarbone, and that pretty much took us out of safe playing, where we could actually play, compete and not overtire.”

St. Dom’s/Lisbon’s three seniors, Emily Andrews, Gabrielle Allen and Cassidy Russell, will be honored at the boys hockey team’s senior night — an idea that Gosselin said was met with enthusiasm by the senior trio.

The Saints won two of their first five games, including a 4-3 victory over rival Lewiston on Dec. 18, but have dropped their past eight.

“I am really proud of the girls, they’ve done really well, they really are troopers,” Gosselin said. “They really just went with it, knew what could happen, (even when) it was a little (bit of a downer), in a sense of losing the games. I think for the most part, because of our short bench, we just got tired, so it took us out of most of those games, because it’s pretty difficult playing with nine girls. For the most part, they didn’t give up, and they worked hard. Speaking for the other two coaches, we were more than happy with what we saw, all things considered.”

The Saints finished 11-7 last season and placed fourth in the North region, but several athletes left either the girls hockey team or St. Dominic Academy after the fall sports season — including a few who now play hockey at Hebron Academy. That didn’t leave St. Dom’s/Lisbon with enough time to co-op with other schools.

“It kept us with our numbers low, and prior to their exit, I think we were looking to have a pretty competitive team. Our schedule was set up accordingly,” Gosselin said. “So the games we had this year were never easy. We went right at it when we scheduled because we thought we were going to be able to handle that. Once we lost a lot of girls, it made it rather difficult.”

Programs that aren’t able to finish a season are subject to a two-season suspension by the Maine Principals’ Association. Gosselin said that, from what he’s heard, St. Dom’s should be able to successfully appeal the suspension because of “extraordinary circumstances.”

“From what I’m told, the committee that we talk to can’t make that decision, but they can make a strong recommendation,” Gosselin said. “I believe they’re doing so, and I think that, hopefully, that committee takes that recommendation and doesn’t require any further penalty because of the circumstances.”

The MPA management committee’s appeal hearings are Jan. 23, March 20 and May 8.