LEWISTON — Five thousand one hundred fourteen days. Give or take.
Nobody skating for Lewiston High School on Saturday night was old enough to have been inside Androscoggin Bank Colisee in any more productive capacity than drinking fountain soda through a sippy cup when the Blue Devils won their most recent Class A hockey championship in 2002.
“We had a losing streak in the championship and in the playoffs,” sophomore Alex Rivet said. “A lot of teams said we couldn’t get it done. We proved those people wrong today.”
Jeromey Rancourt cast out a decade’s worth of demons and restored tradition with one sweep of his stick.
His goal off a rebound with 29 seconds remaining in regulation, Rivet and Jonathan Sturgis assisting, vaulted Lewiston to a 2-1 victory over Scarborough and a 21st title that had achieved legendary elusiveness.
“It’s huge for all the seniors, everyone who’s come through here,” Rancourt said. “It’s a great tradition. I’m glad our team could do it. To play in this tradition is unreal.”
Three presidential election cycles, verging upon a fourth. Gasoline prices that fluctuated every which way. Six or seven phone upgrades, for most of us. Heck, I’m not sure I used anything but a land line in 2002.
“It means a lot because we’ve been producing so many good hockey teams out of the community, and we just couldn’t get it done when it counts,” senior Kyle Morin said. “It feels great to be the team that finally ended that.”
Those of you pay more than passing attention to such matters know that with the exception of a period after World War I, dominated to the Devils’ chagrin by St. Dom’s, such droughts were never heard or dreamed.
Nor were the parade of programs that won state titles from 2003 through 2014.
Edward Little. Cheverus. Biddeford. Waterville. Thornton. Falmouth. Scarborough. Subtract the Purple Panthers — who, perhaps not coincidentally, captured the Class B crown on Saturday — and each of them had yet to celebrate a championship when the Devils’ Mario Villani scored that triple-overtime goal just past the turn of the century.
Six times, Lewiston reached the final, only to fall short and often in soul-crushing fashion. Three of those defeats, consecutively, ended the tenure of Norm Gagne, who landed on his feet at (fate is funny, isn’t it?) Scarborough.
“It’s something we talked about all year. We knew we had a talented group. The most talented teams don’t always win,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “It takes something special. It’s how they respond to adversity, their maturity level, their discipline and those types of things. Really understanding that they’ve got to fight for each other. That was special with this group.”
To call the first five games of the season “special” is laughably stingy. Lewiston outscored Portland/Deering, EL, Thornton, Biddeford and St. Dom’s by a total of 42 goals to three.
This, to nervously repeat a refrain that had been warbled a half-dozen times since the second term of George W. Bush, could be the year.
Then came a musical interlude from Humble Pie. One of those upstart thorns in Lewiston’s side, Falmouth, dealt the Devils a 5-2 defeat on Jan. 7. Sophomore Joe Bisson, one of the team’s most explosive scorers, was sent to the hospital.
“We lost pretty big. We knew we were going to have to bounce back hard,” Morin said. “From then, we just went on a tear. We made it our goal to make it here, and now here we are.”
Two ties against Scarborough and an overtime road loss at Bangor were the only additional blemishes.
Along the way, Lewiston did what its championship teams historically have done. The Devils earned revenge at home against Falmouth. They swept three tussles with St. Dom’s, including the North championship game.
“Everybody thought we were going to run over teams,” Rivet said. “When we lost to Falmouth, it got us that we’re beatable. The games we don’t show up on, we can be beat. We showed up tonight, and it was a good, hard game.”
Lewiston spared itself a fistful of flashbacks and a smattering of self-doubt by wrapping it up in regulation.
Rivet, for one, said he attended the past five state finals and that “the better team usually didn’t win” when the game extended into overtime.
“You look up midway through the third period and like normal we’re outshooting them two or three to one, and you just hope these kids get rewarded for their work ethic,” Belleau said.
The coach played on a state championship team at Lewiston in 1987 before coaching EL to its back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004.
He saw the parallels in the 2015-16 Devils. Intangibles, he said. Their ability to bounce back individually and stay together collectively when things threatened to head south set them apart.
Players sensed it, too.
“We were close, Morin said. “Something Coach said from the beginning is, ‘Special teams have something special,’ and I really think we have something special here.”
Belleau wouldn’t deny that bringing the glory days back to his alma mater is equally special, but he wasn’t in a self-congratulatory mood.
“These kids did it,” he said. “We’re champions. They worked for it and they deserve it.”
What does it cost to get four numbers emblazoned on a banner, compared to what it would have in 2002?
Lewiston is about to find out. Rancourt, Rivet, Morin and Co. made it rain Saturday night. The drought is over.
Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His email is koakes@sunjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @oaksie72 and like his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kalleoakes.sj.
LEWISTON — Five thousand one hundred fourteen days. Give or take.
Nobody skating for Lewiston High School on Saturday night was old enough to have been inside Androscoggin Bank Colisee in any more productive capacity than drinking fountain soda through a sippy cup when the Blue Devils won their most recent Class A hockey championship in 2002.
“We had a losing streak in the championship and in the playoffs,” sophomore Alex Rivet said. “A lot of teams said we couldn’t get it done. We proved those people wrong today.”
Jeromey Rancourt cast out a decade’s worth of demons and restored tradition with one sweep of his stick.
His goal off a rebound with 29 seconds remaining in regulation, Rivet and Jonathan Sturgis assisting, vaulted Lewiston to a 2-1 victory over Scarborough and a 21st title that had achieved legendary elusiveness.
“It’s huge for all the seniors, everyone who’s come through here,” Rancourt said. “It’s a great tradition. I’m glad our team could do it. To play in this tradition is unreal.”
Three presidential election cycles, verging upon a fourth. Gasoline prices that fluctuated every which way. Six or seven phone upgrades, for most of us. Heck, I’m not sure I used anything but a land line in 2002.
“It means a lot because we’ve been producing so many good hockey teams out of the community, and we just couldn’t get it done when it counts,” senior Kyle Morin said. “It feels great to be the team that finally ended that.”
Those of you pay more than passing attention to such matters know that with the exception of a period after World War II, dominated to the Devils’ chagrin by St. Dom’s, such droughts were never heard or dreamed.
Nor were the parade of programs that won state titles from 2003 through 2014.
Edward Little. Cheverus. Biddeford. Waterville. Thornton. Falmouth. Scarborough. Subtract the Purple Panthers — who, perhaps not coincidentally, captured the Class B crown on Saturday — and each of them had yet to celebrate a championship when the Devils’ Mario Villani scored that triple-overtime goal just past the turn of the century.
Six times, Lewiston reached the final, only to fall short and often in soul-crushing fashion. Three of those defeats, consecutively, ended the tenure of Norm Gagne, who landed on his feet at (fate is funny, isn’t it?) Scarborough.
“It’s something we talked about all year. We knew we had a talented group. The most talented teams don’t always win,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “It takes something special. It’s how they respond to adversity, their maturity level, their discipline and those types of things. Really understanding that they’ve got to fight for each other. That was special with this group.”
To call the first five games of the season “special” is laughably stingy. Lewiston outscored Portland/Deering, EL, Thornton, Biddeford and St. Dom’s by a total of 42 goals to three.
This, to nervously repeat a refrain that had been warbled a half-dozen times since the second term of George W. Bush, could be the year.
Then came a musical interlude from Humble Pie. One of those upstart thorns in Lewiston’s side, Falmouth, dealt the Devils a 5-2 defeat on Jan. 7. Sophomore Joe Bisson, one of the team’s most explosive scorers, was sent to the hospital.
“We lost pretty big. We knew we were going to have to bounce back hard,” Morin said. “From then, we just went on a tear. We made it our goal to make it here, and now here we are.”
Two ties against Scarborough and an overtime road loss at Bangor were the only additional blemishes.
Along the way, Lewiston did what its championship teams historically have done. The Devils earned revenge at home against Falmouth. They swept three tussles with St. Dom’s, including the North championship game.
“Everybody thought we were going to run over teams,” Rivet said. “When we lost to Falmouth, it got us that we’re beatable. The games we don’t show up on, we can be beat. We showed up tonight, and it was a good, hard game.”
Lewiston spared itself a fistful of flashbacks and a smattering of self-doubt by wrapping it up in regulation.
Rivet, for one, said he attended the past five state finals and that “the better team usually didn’t win” when the game extended into overtime.
“You look up midway through the third period and like normal we’re outshooting them two or three to one, and you just hope these kids get rewarded for their work ethic,” Belleau said.
The coach played on a state championship team at Lewiston in 1987 before coaching EL to its back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004.
He saw the parallels in the 2015-16 Devils. Intangibles, he said. Their ability to bounce back individually and stay together collectively when things threatened to head south set them apart.
Players sensed it, too.
“We were close, Morin said. “Something Coach said from the beginning is, ‘Special teams have something special,’ and I really think we have something special here.”
Belleau wouldn’t deny that bringing the glory days back to his alma mater is equally special, but he wasn’t in a self-congratulatory mood.
“These kids did it,” he said. “We’re champions. They worked for it and they deserve it.”
What does it cost to get four numbers emblazoned on a banner, compared to what it would have in 2002?
Lewiston is about to find out. Rancourt, Rivet, Morin and Co. made it rain Saturday night. The drought is over.
Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His email is koakes@sunjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @oaksie72 and like his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kalleoakes.sj.
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