Maine Hockey Journal

Lewiston stays at the head of the class in boys’ Class A hockey

Lewiston, ME – Sam Cloutier stole the show in the Lewiston High School Blue Devils (9-0-1) 6-3 victory over the Thornton Academy’s Golden Trojans (6-4) on Monday evening.

The senior had four goals and an assist in a clash between the two powerhouse programs.

“It’s one of those games where the bounces went my way,” Cloutier said.

The Golden Trojans kept the game close enough to keep themselves in it throughout the game.

“Sometimes when you lose a game, you can acknowledge that there are positives you can take away from it,” said Thornton Academy Head Coach Shawn Rousseau. “There’s no secret Lewiston is a tremendous hockey team and to come here tonight into their building and out shoot them, it feels pretty good.”

Cloutier was the catalyst for the Blue Devils offense in the first period. He opened up the scoring 21 seconds in as he deked his way past the defenseman and slipped the puck past Thornton netminder Joe Ferrante. Colt Steele picked up the alone assist.

“It was a turnover at the blue line and (I) saw the defenseman flat footed. I skated around him,” Cloutier said.

Ferrante kept the game at 1-0 in the middle of the opening frame as he went out of his crease and poked checked the puck away from Ryan Lemelin. He them made a diving save as he was getting back to his crease.

“You like to see goalies to be aggressive, either their glove hand in front of their body, you love to see when the puck is in front of their body, you like to see them go get it,” Rousseau mentioned. “When a kid is on his toes and confident, that’s a good sign.”

“Joey (Ferrante) looked good tonight. He faced high quality shots and did a very nice job.”

Cloutier would strike again with 2:07 to play on the power play in the first as he unleashed a slap shot into the top shelf. Kyle Lemelin set the goal up.

“It was big for us, we needed to get the momentum back on our side going into the second,” Cloutier stated.

After buzzing late in the first period, Thornton Academy answered early in the second on the power play. Rob Downing stuffed the puck home at the 35 second mark. Sam Canales had the initial shot on net.

“We had to face a lot of adversity tonight, the game was difficult for us to play for a lot of reasons, including Thornton playing well as they did,” Lewiston Head Coach Jamie Belleau said. “There were other things that we didn’t have control over, but we made the best of it.”

Thornton kept buzzing in the second, but Cam Poussard made two key stops on C.J. Maksut in the period to keep the game at 2-1 in Lewiston’s favor. One of the stops he made, he was able to stop his momentum from crossing the goal line.

“(Poussard) kept us in the game and we capitalized on our opportunities,” said Belleau. “That was the difference.”

Cloutier would complete the hat trick off a face-off, three seconds into a power play at the 13:02 mark of the second period.

“Sam is a senior and is one of the better players in the state,” Belleau added. “Certainly he played well.”

Lewiston was 2-for-2 on the power play while Thornton was 2-for-5.

Lewiston would strike early in the third period when Colt Steele pick the top corner over Ferrante’s glove hand. Cloutier picked up his fourth point of the game at the 2:37 mark.

Desmond Gagne made it 5-1 when he unleashed a slap shot in the slot at the 8:20 mark. Assists went to Matt Therrien and Devon Beland.

The Golden Trojans closed the gap in the middle of the third period with C.J. Maksut potting one home on the power play at the 9:30 mark with Sam Canales picking up the lone assist.

Just 1:41 later, Rob Downing notched his second of the game.

“The goal Maksut did score, he got (Poussard) moving, and got it away quick,” Rousseau said. “You need to do something unusual off that kid to and we didn’t do enough.”

Cloutier would add the empty netter with 1:31 to play in the game with Zach Parker being credited with the lone assist.

Poussard made 28 saves in the game while Ferrante turned aside 23 shots in the loss.

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