AUBURN — Scoring wasn’t easy for Lewiston on Wednesday night.
The Blue Devils were going against a packed-in Red Hornets defense, so two goals in the final minute of the second period were welcome sight for the visitors, who skated to a 4-0 girls hockey victory over Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“Giving up two goals in the last minute, that’s a hockey sin,” Red Hornets coach Dana Berube said. “Those are tough to come back from.”
Lilly Gish set up Paige Pomerleau for a Blue Devils goal midway through the first period. Lewiston outshot Edward Little 9-0 in the opening frame, but that goal was all the Devils could muster against Red Hornets goalie Manny Guimond in the first 29 minutes. And, to even go in that shot had to deflect off the crossbar.
Guimond’s glove was active, and she made one tough save on Bailee St. Hilaire’s screened shot in the second period, then another 40 seconds later on Leah Landry’s 1-on-1 shot.
“Obviously they had a lot more puck possession and zone time. When you got a goalie like Manny, though, she always keeps you in the game,” Berube said.
The Red Hornets (9-6-3) eventually put two shots on goal in the middle frame, the first by Caroline Audette 4:13 in, and then Caroline Tracey pressured the Lewiston defense with hard counter-attacks, but goalie Camree St. Hilaire made the necessary saves.
Guimond tried to do the same, but a pair of final-minute shots by Lewiston (17-0) slid under her.
Gemma Landry’s shot from the circle with 39.5 seconds left went off a defender’s skate and past Guimond, then Leah Dube was open backdoor and slipped a shot under Guimond with 17.4 ticks left.
“Going in, we knew they were undermanned, had some kids that are sick. You’re biggest concern is that we’re going to just kind of not put a good effort in, thinking, ‘This is going to be easy,'” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said. “They worked really hard, they did a really good job. And Manny can change a game really quick, so both those goals were really important.”
Madison Conley and Pomerleau assisted on Landry’s goal, and Brie Dube started the Dube connection.
Bailee St. Hilaire then added to the scoring 1:14 into the third, moments after Camree St. Hilaire stymied a Tracey counter chance at the other end.
“I did like our effort in the third. I thought we stuck with it, and we had some girls out there that were in some unfamiliar spots and did a hell of a job for us,” Berube said.
“I think when you play Lewiston you got to be smart about — let’s face it, every girl on that team can skate, they can move, they know where to go — so we were really concentrating on taking away the really good opportunities in the high-scoring areas,” Berube added. “And I thought we did pretty well with that, especially playing (only) two girls at D that are used to that spot, and Abbie Kane stepped in and did a hell of a job for us today. And Audrey Day did a real good job up on our first line.
“The game plan wasn’t to sit back and let them pound us, but when you’re playing Lewiston, you got to pick your spots. And I thought we did that for the most part.”
Guimond finished with 23 saves, while St. Hilaire stopped all eight shots she saw for her 13th shutout of the season.
“She steps up really good,” Dumont said. “I think that’s the hardest thing for a goalie, when you don’t get anything … and then all of a sudden they’re right on top of you. It takes a ton of focus.”
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