The Blue Devils are ranked third in Eastern A and won a third straight game with a 6-3 win over Cony Thursday. It was another positive step in the right direction for Lewiston as it prepares for the postseason.
“We’re at seven wins right now,” Lewiston coach Skip Capone said. “We’re going to be in the playoffs. We’re going to be playing on June 10th. We’ve got two more practices to get ready for Morse and we’ll keep getting after it. That’s all we can do.”
Thursday’s win wasn’t easy win for 7-3 Lewiston. The winless Rams hung around before the Blue Devils opened the lead up in the second half.
“We were slow offensively,” Capone said. “We had some great looks. We hit their goalie four or five times in the chest. We missed a couple wide-open goals.”
Cony was within a goal at 2-1 at the half, even though Lewiston outshot the Rams 11-2 in the first 25 minutes. Cony was also within 3-2 early in the second half, but Lewiston responded with three straight goals to build a 6-2 advantage.
“We can usually regroup,” senior Kristina Blais said. “Coach might blow a gasket, but we can regroup.”
Blais finished with three goals, two coming during that second-half run that opened the lead. Allie Frechette, Morgan Eliasen and Lauren Lecompte also had goals for Lewiston.
“We are what we are,” Capone said. “We’re young offensively as a squad. Sometimes we play like it. That’s the way it is.”
Cony got two goals from Rebecca Coniff and one from Anna Brannigan late in the second half. Lewiston played solid defensively and limited the Rams to just six shots. Goalie Paige Fontaine made three saves.
“Defensively, we play real well,” Capone said. “We have a great goalie. We’re going to be in every game. We’re going to win ugly sometimes. That’s how it goes.”
After a scoreless start to the game, Blais burst in from the left side for a goal with 12:34 left in the half. Cony got that back just 36 seconds later with a Coniff goal on a pass from Tynisha Francois.
Frechette curled around the net and scored for the go-ahead tally with 1:08 left in the half. Cony netminder Elizabeth Dennison made six saves in the first half and nine overall.
“Their goalie was good,” Blais said. “We just had to move their goalie in order to get a shot off and into the net.”
Lewiston started moving more effectively on offense in the second half. Eliasen scored just 1:08 into the half to make it 3-1. Coniff scored with 20:11 left to get the Rams (0-8) within 3-2.
“At halftime, coach basically said that ‘You guys have to move,'” Blais said. “A lot of our girls were getting face-guarded. In order to get that moving, we just have to get some cuts through the middle so we could get some drive.”
Blais scored with 19:57 left to extend the lead. That was just 14 seconds after Coniff’s goal. Then Lecompte drove in from the right side for a goal with 12:54 left. Blais added another off a pass from Emily Brochu with 2:49 for the 6-2 lead. Cony got the Brannigan goal with 1:39 left.
It was a strong second half and finish for the Blue Devils after a slow start.
“We’re just trying to keep getting better every game,” Blais said.
Lewiston hosts Morse next Tuesday and then gets a rematch with top-ranked Messalonskee, which beat the Blue Devils 10-9.
“We’ve still got a lot of things to work on,” Capone said. “We lost to Messalonskee by a goal in overtime and we lost to Mt. Ararat by a goal right at the end. We can play with anybody but we’ve got to be clicking on all cylinders.”
kmills@sunjournal.com
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