Kyle Smith’s hat trick leads Edward Little past Lewiston.
AUBURN – Seven days after handing Lewiston its first loss of the season, Edward Little took its game back to its house for the rematch.
New venue, new game plan, same result.
Kyle Smith scored three goals and added two assists, Matt Nadeau and Colby Gilbert each had a goal and an assist and Kris Bennett made 23 saves to lead the Red Eddies to a 6-1 win over the Blue Devils at Ingersoll Arena on Wednesday.
Four of Edward Little’s goals came on the power play, while Lewiston went 0-for-6.
“They beat us on special teams tonight,” Lewiston coach Tim Smith said. “I think in 5-on-5 situations we skated toe-to-toe with them all night. I can’t really say that any of our penalties were all that bad, either, they just came at inopportune times.”
The win cinched the top playoff seed in the East for Edward Little.
“I’ve been really pleased with the way the power play unit has come along this year,” EL coach Jamie Belleau said. “In the last few years, I can’t remember our power play producing as well as it has recently. Just as big, though, I think, was our ability to kill of their power plays.”
With Edward Little already ahead 5-1 to start the third period, Lewiston had five straight minutes of power play time to start the period, ample time to at least attempt a comeback. Instead, the Edward Little defense held the Blue Devils to just three shots in that span, and just 24 all game, eight of which came in a flurry to start the second period.
“With a team like Lewiston you have to expect that kind of rush to open a period,” Belleau said. “I think everyone knew before the season started that we’d be talented on offense, but now we have gone through Lewiston twice and given up just two goals, and through Cheverus and St. Dom’s once each allowing no goals at all. That is really something special for our defense.”
EL opened the scoring at 3:55 when Smith put home an errant Gilbert shot on the power play. Dave Roberge added No. 2 on a turnover in the Lewiston zone to give EL a 2-0 lead into the first break.
Lewiston struck back with its only goal at 3:04 of the second when Jake Girardin converted on a 2-on-1 down low with Adam Longchamps to draw the Blue Devils to within one, but two more power play goals later, one from Gilbert and the other from Smith, gave EL a solid 4-1 lead. Smith capped the hat trick at 9:03 of the second on a feed from Matt Couturier.
jpelletier@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
