Lewiston’s Ryan Bossie gets slammed against the boards by Falmouth’s David Hawkes during the Class A Championship game in the Colisee on Saturday night.
LEWISTON — Falmouth’s strategy for the first period of Saturday night’s Class A state championship didn’t deviate much from its plan when it beat a seemingly unbeatable Lewiston team, 3-2, on Jan. 16
If it moves, hit it. Hopefully, it will hit back.
The Yachtsmen knocked the Blue Devils off their game that night. Lewiston answered muscle with muscle, rather than the splendid skills that made the defending state champion the target of the Yachtsmen and everyone else in the state this season. Falmouth nearly did it again five days later, erasing a 3-0 deficit before Lewiston ultimately got its revenge, 5-4.
On Saturday night, Falmouth tried with all of its brute force to replay those first two meetings, but the Blue Devils wouldn’t bite back. Their discipline led to overwhelming puck possession, two key power play goals in a dominating second period, seven power plays overall and six goals in a not-even-that-close 6-2 win.
“We’ve been talking about that for about eight weeks,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said of his team’s response to Falmouth’s aggression. “This game came down to making smart decisions with the puck, utilizing our strengths, keeping our composure and playing our game, making sure we didn’t fall into their trap. The kids did everything we asked them to do.”
“Throughout the whole season, we worked on staying disciplined and staying out of the box,” Lewiston junior Joe Bisson said. “We know that we’re one of the fastest teams in the state, and we just try to stay out of the box. We don’t need to start playing other people’s game. We’re playing our game, and our game is the best game.”
Lewiston’s best game came in flashes during the first period. Led by Travis Roy semifinalist Robbie Armitage, Falmouth went to the blue-shirted bodies early and often. The Blue Devils had a 10-3 shot advantage after one, but seemed hesitant to mix it up in front of the net.
Falmouth coach Deron Barton thought his team had gotten its point across in the first period. His team, perhaps emboldened by the unfamiliar zero on Lewiston’s side of the scoreboard, apparently did not.
“We got away from our game plan (in the second period),” Barton said. “We knew we had to be physical. We sent the message in the first period. In the second period, we needed to focus on end zone pressure and shots on net, and it just didn’t happen.”
Instead, the Yachtsmen kept trying to knock Blue Devils off the puck, or really just off their skates, whether they had the puck or not.
Less than a minute into the second period, Armitage picked up a roughing penalty with 19 seconds left on Falmouth’s only power play of the game. Forty seconds later, Cole Ouellette stepped around a defender with a beautiful one-on-one move to score the game’s first goal.
Fittingly, Ouellette was off his skates before his first teammate reached him to celebrate, pushed into the end boards by the Yachtsman he’d left in his wake.
Shortly after Alex Robert’s even-strength goal made it 2-0, Armitage layed out Travis Roy finalist Jeromey Rancourt on a clean hit after he fanned on a shot in front of the right post.
Rancourt, who seemed to be a favorite target of the Yachtsmen the last time the teams met, was still shaking off the affects of that hit when he got cross-checked behind the play. A slash from Brendan Hickey finally drew a whistle, but by then Rancourt was hobbling off the ice, as much from the sequence of hits he’d taken as the stick that sent him sprawling in the corner in front of Lewiston’s student section.
“They got me in some good places,” Rancourt said. “You’ve just got to battle through it. It’s not easy, but you’ve just got to fight through the pain.”
Rancourt returned to the ice a short time later, and while Falmouth killed off that power play, it wasn’t done going to the box. And the Blue Devils made it hurt again, with Alex Rivet extending the margin to 3-0 on their second power play goal.
With the game well in hand in the third period, the Blue Devils could have been excused for trying to settle some personal scores.
They kept letting the scoreboard do the score-settling, instead. Rancourt got his revenge when he followed his own shot to score the last goal, which made it 6-0.
It may not have been the biggest goal of Rancourt’s career, but it was one of the sweetest.
“It was very rewarding in my mind,” Rancourt said. “It just added to the score, but I feel rewarded for it.”
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