LEWISTON — The Lewiston High School Blue Devils (15-4-0) relied on their big horses early on and their depth they rolled to a 9-0 win over Cony (9-9-1) in an Eastern Class A quarterfinal match up.
The Blue Devils will face the winner of Tuesday’s Edward Little-St. Dom’s match up Saturday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee at 8 p.m.
“We wanted to play a smart game, disciplined game. We wanted to simplify the game. We didn’t to turn the puck over,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “We wanted to move the puck up well and we wanted to play solid in three zones.”
Matt Poulin and Brendon Croteau each recorded a hat trick in the victory while Poulin’s line mate Kyle Lemelin had a goal and three assists.
“Lets all be clear here, Poulin, (Evan) Gosselin and Lemelin has been a dominate line in the state last year, and obviously they will lead us this year,” Belleau said. “They got us going, but everybody followed suit. There was a lot of good things out there I thought.”
Kyle Lemelin and Matt Poulin set up the give-and-go feed perfectly while shorthanded to give the Blue Devils the 1-0 lead 6:07 into the first period. Lemelin fed Poulin who deked to get Cony goaltender Thomas Small moving and slid the puck into the net.
The duo would connect one more time before the first period ended as Poulin scored a power play marker with 1:35 to play in the period. Evan Gosselin notched the second assist.
It was Lewiston’s only power play in the game while Cony was 0 for 2.
“We had a forecheck set up where we trying to clog up center ice and try to slow the game down,” Cony coach Chad Foye said of his game plan. “When we executed it, we were OK. On a couple of rushes when we had chances to score, their transition game was really quick, and it was tough to get back and keep up with them.”
The tandem hooked up again for a third time to give Lewiston the 3-0 lead 3:34 into the second period. This time Matt Poulin fed Lemelin who released a wrist shot from the top of the left circle and cleanly beat Small.
Brendon Croteau picked up the next two goals for the Blue Devils in the second period. His first tally came 36 seconds after Lemelin’s goal. There was a mad scramble in the crease and he picked up the rebound from the initial shot and put it into the net. Joey Frechette was credited with the lone assist.
His second goal came with 51 seconds remaining in the period with Jake Iacono picking the up the assist on the play.
Jeromey Rancourt put up the sixth goal of the night for Lewiston 1:51 into the final stanza. Ethan Melvin fed him and was the lone player to pick up an assist.
Griffin wade notched the seventh goal 4:01 into the period with Kyle Morin and Rancourt picking up helpers on the play.
Poulin and Croteau each completed their hat tricks 20 seconds apart. Poulin’s third goal made it 8-0 at the 7:33 mark and Croteau answered at the 7:53 mark. Lemelin assisted on Poulin’s goal while Kyle Ullrich recorded a point on Croteau’s goal.
Nick Hawk made for saves in the victory while Small made 20 saves.
Send questions/comments to the editors.