LEWISTON – There is no doubt that players from both the Lewiston and St. Dom’s hockey teams spent some hours in the weight room getting ready for this season.
Maybe the penalty box attendants should have followed the same workout regimen, as both teams paraded several players to the box throughout the night.
And, as the old cliche would have it, the team with the fewest penalties won out.
St. Dom’s scored three times with an extra attacker, twice with a two-man advantage, as Lewiston took five consecutive minors between the near the end of the second and into the third period, and Brady Blackman recovered from a shaky start, helping the Saints to a 5-3 win in the first-round of the Bishop’s Cup tournament at the Colisee on Friday.
“It came right down to the penalties,” said Lewiston coach Norm Gagne. “I thought the first half of the game, we dominated, but I think we got a little tired at the halfway mark and we sort of lost our composure. We got tired and started to do some things that we don’t normally do.”
Last Friday, Lewiston struggled in two games against Western Class A opponents in another preseason tourney due to high penalty counts. Last Saturday, it was St. Dom’s spending the time in the box against Lewiston.
This time, Lewiston turned the tables, taking 11 minor penalties to just three for the Saints.
“They lost composure and they started running around a bit,” St. Dom’s coach John Pleau said of Lewiston’s play. “It happens. I told Norm after the game that I paid the referees in this game two dollars more this week than he paid the other guys last week.”
Both teams capitalized when they had the chance with an extra attacker, though. Lewiston went 2-for-3 with the extra skater, while the Saints scored three times.
“We capitalized on the power play and for a young and inexperienced defense I thought we adjusted on the penalty kill well, too,” said Pleau.
It was a pair of penalties at the end of the game, too, that sealed the Blue Devils’ fate, as Brandon Girardin sat out for tripping, and Kevin LeBlanc followed him to the box 40 seconds later, with just 20 seconds to play in the game.
“This is only really our fourth game, but I was hoping we were going to take a bigger step tonight,” said Gagne. “But, it’s preseason and that’s what preseason is for.”
The teams will both play tonight, with Lewiston taking on Cheverus in a rematch of last year’s Class A state title game at 6 p.m. St. Dom’s will face Brunswick, which beat Cheverus, 4-3, in the championship immediately following the first game.
In the opener, Josh Aldred, Josh Clark, Jason Lachance and Cory Broniarczyk all scored for Brunswick. John Keneborous, Sam Johnson and Brian McDonough potted goals for the Stags.
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