Maine Hockey Journal

Blue Devils edge rival St. Dom’s

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(PHOTO: RAM Sports)

(PHOTO: RAM Sports)

AUBURN – The Lewiston Blue Devils squeezed through a tough, physical rivalry match against the Saint Dominic Academy Saints by a score of 3-2 Saturday night at the Norway Savings Bank Arena.

The Saints, who were handed a heavy 6-1 loss by the Devils earlier in the season, fought hard enough to bring the game down to the final seconds.

The game was physical enough for teams to receive multiple penalties on crushing hits. The physical play defines every game these two teams step on the ice to compete against each other.

From the drop of the puck, the Blue Devils knew they had a tough test at hand. Though they didn’t get the majority of the puck possession in the first period, the Saints had plenty of opportunities on five shots to get on the board.

Jacob Strout, a junior goaltender for Lewiston, was up to the test. The goalie was squaring up to the snipers on the Saints roster, and remaining calm in a hostile environment.

Sam Frechette, a freshman forward for the Blue Devils, didn’t cave under the pressure of playing in a big match either. Frechette recorded the first goal of the game when he received an Alex Robert pass from behind the net and drove the puck home past the sprawling Kyle Welsh. The goal came with 3:53 remaining in the first period.

“It feels great,” said Frechette of his performance. “My partner Alex Robert who’s also a freshman gave a lot of good passes to me.”

Just 11 seconds after the drop of the puck in the second period, Frechette took another pass from Robert, who, again, set himself up behind the net. Frechette found a spot and tucked the puck behind Welsh for his second goal of the game.

Later in the stanza, the Blue Devils found themselves killing two penalties.

With a two-man advantage, Gavin Bates got the Saints on the board on a hard shot from the left faceoff dot. Austin Roy assisted on the power play goal.

“He’s always ready,” said St. Dom’s head coach Bob Parker. “It doesn’t matter if it’s this game or a game against another team; he’s always fired up. I was impressed with Austin Roy tonight. He led by example out there. He did a great job, and he’s our leader.”

It looked like the Saints would go into the locker room down by just a goal, but Lewiston’s Nick Bisson thought differently. Alex Rivet slid the puck to Bisson, who stuffed the puck into the goal just as time expired.

“They scored with half a second left or so,” said Parker. “That was kind of dejected, yet we turned it around in the locker room, and we got the kids really fired up. I gave them some goals for the third period, and some expectations and they met them.”

With the game reaching its climax in the third period, tempers boiled and the teams clashed with both physical play and skilled play.

After a major boarding penalty for the Saints, Lewiston received a 5-minute boarding major of their own.

As time expired on the St. Dom’s major penalty, the Saints found themselves with 2:48 in power play time.

With the extra time on the man advantage, Noah Toussaint rifled a shot over Strout’s blocker to bring the game to within a goal with 2:10 remaining in the game. Bates had the assist on the goal.

St. Dom’s would pull their goaltender to gain an extra attacker, but the Saints didn’t add another tally to the board and fell to the Blue Devils after a fearless effort.

Strout, who had 20 saves on 22 shots, held tough in goal through the final minute.

“Strout played excellent,” said Lewiston’s head coach Jamie Belleau.

Kyle Welsh gave his team an opportunity to win in allowing three goals on 28 shots to a prolific scoring offense but fell just short.

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