LEWISTON — There will be no drama.
The L/A Nordiques completed the sweep of the Long Beach Sharks in the NA3HL Coastal Division semifinals with a 9-1 victory in front of 679 fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Saturday night, avoiding a Game 3.
Colby Audette tallied a hat trick and an assist, while Lewiston native Joe Bisson had two goals and three assists and Josh Sanchez dished out five assists. The three players make up the team’s green line.
“We moved the puck pretty well together, we have been playing together for a while, so we kind of know what each other is going to do already,” Audette said. “We can just (pass) it to where the other person is going to be and we have good chemistry together.”
The Nordiques started quickly. Matthew McDermitt found the back of the net 3:25 into the game after Crewz Berry set him up. Just past the 11-minute mark, Josh Sanchez snuck a pass through the crease to a crashing Joe Bisson to make it 2-0.
The Sharks scored for the first time in the series when Dino Mukovoz fed Noah Carlock across the high slot as Carlock cut the deficit in half with 3:40 remaining in the opening period.
L/A struck 12 seconds later as Cole Ouellette scored his second goal of the playoffs. Audette stretched the lead to 4-1 with 3:07 remaining in the first. Sanchez assisted on both goals.
“I think we started a little better in the first period, as far as putting the puck in,” Nordiques coach Cam Robichaud said. “Cashing in on our opportunities, that was kind of our message from the beginning of the game. We scored a lot of goals yesterday, but it came in the second and third periods. We wanted to have a good start right away.”
Joe Bisson shot from the right circle, which dipped at the last second on Sharks goalie Ryan Cortez, stretched the lead to 5-1 early the second period. Sanchez added his fourth assist of the game on the goal.
Hans Watson went coast-to-coast for a goal at the 10:43 mark and Alex Rivet tipped in a JP Chauvin shot at the 12:05 mark to give L/A a 7-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
Audette scored a power play goal just past the six-minute mark of the third period, with Bisson making the assist. Audette completed the hat trick on the power play with 1:03 remaining in the game. The final goal was set up by Bisson and Sanchez.
Nordiques were 2-for-5 with the man advantage, while the Sharks were 0-for-4.
L/A goalie Dan Miller made 17 saves in the victory, while Cortez made 48 saves.
The Nordiques will take on the Northeast Generals in the Coastal Division finals. A schedule hasn’t been officially announced. The Generals swept the New England Stars in two games in the semifinals.
The Nordiques outscored the Sharks 22-1 this weekend. There are additional positives for the Nordiques to take into the series against the Generals.
“We competed hard through the entire 60 minutes in each game,” Audette said. “We were ripping the puck tape-to-tape the entire game. (We got) shots to the net and bodies to the front, and playing hard-nosed hockey is going to translate to the next round, too.”
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