LEWISTON – There are no in-between-meal snacks in Class A schoolboy hockey.

Tuesday night’s home opener with the Cony/Monmouth combine was Lewiston’s stop between weekend road trips to Biddeford and Scarborough. Suffice it to say that the meat, and not the bread, is on the outside of that sandwich.

Things were slow to cook, but the defending Eastern Maine champion Devils still feasted on a 7-1 victory at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“It took a little while, as expected. It takes a little while to get your feet. One thing we’re looking to work on against the good teams is when the puck drops, hit the ground running,” said senior Matt Poulin, who scored a hat trick and chipped in an assist to lead Lewiston (2-0).

Kyle Morin added two goals and Kyle Lemelin logged three assists for the Devils, who scored four times in the second period to snag an insurmountable 5-1 lead.

“We were getting shots to the net, getting rebounds,” Morin said. “We’ve got to get ready from the start.”

Morin’s forechecking set the physical tone early in the period, and the Devils’ puck movement quickly escalated to midseason form.

Ullrich made it a 2-0 advantage with a pretty goal at the 1:52 mark. After flagging down a pass from Poulin at the far post, he hesitated, faked Cony goaltender Thomas Small to the deck and opened up the top shelf.

Small robbed Ethan Melvin from the left circle with a swipe of the glove to keep the Rams within the striking distance, but the Devils remained persistent and efficient in their offensive end.

Lemelin and Ullrich connected the dots to Poulin, who rang one in off the left post at 8:35.

“What separates us from other teams we’ve had in the past is our chemistry, and our depth,” Poulin said. “It comes out in all parts of our game, the way we work together.”

Morin was next, just over a minute later, deflecting Griffin Wade’s offering into the net. Devin Harrison also picked up an assist.

“I didn’t like the first period. We were sloppy, we started slow, and we can learn from that,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “If we start that way against another team, maybe things are different. I like the way we played in the second period. We moved the puck. The timing definitely got better.”

Lewiston’s one defensive lapse of the period, a pedestrian attempt to clear the zone, led to Cony’s goal with 2:08 to go in the second. Austin Davis picked up the carom off the boards and found a seam past goalie Sam Zashut. Anthony Brunelle registered the assist.

But the Devils returned the favor with their own theft deep in the Rams’ zone. Morin finished what Brendon Croteau started and restored the four-goal cushion with 21 seconds left.

Small made 20 of his 41 saves in the second period for the Rams (1-1).

Poulin pocketed both goals in the third period. One came at even strength and the other on the power play. Both were set up by Lemelin, with freshman Jean-Luc Dostie adding an assist on the special teams tally.

“It’s just being in the right place at the right time,” Poulin said. “That’s all it was.”

Dostie alertly attacked a loose puck in the crease to give Lewiston a 1-0 lead at the first intermission.

Small sprawled out on the ice to stop sophomore Brady Cusson’s initial shot. The puck lingered perilously in front before Dostie swept it into the net at 5:24.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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