LEWISTON — Freshman Avaya Desjardins wanted to step up.
Lewiston was without starting goalie Kim McLaughlin on Monday, so Desjardins traded in her stick and gloves for goalie pads and a goalie stick.
Desjardins, wearing McLaughlin’s No. 30 jersey because it’s specifically designed for goalies, stopped 11 of the 12 shots she faced in the Blue Devils’ 7-1 win over Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland at The Colisee.
Desjardins said she was both nervous and excited for her first time ever playing goalie. Her comfort level grew after she made her first save.
“It made me more confident that I could it,” Desjardins said.
Lewiston (7-1) coach Ron Dumont said that he preached defense to his team before the game.
“We knew we needed to be sound as we ever been defensively,” Dumont said. “First, you got Avaya stepping up, who has never been in goal and we put her in the net. She said she would do it, but we needed to protect her. I told the kids: ‘We don’t give up typically give up more than 12 shots in a game, maybe 15. So if we can keep them to the outside it doesn’t change anything regarding our offense and defense.”
Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland’s second shot, by Alyssa Prosser, went through Desjardins’ five-hole, giving the Red Hornets a 1-0 lead nearly three minutes into the game.
Desjardins said her teammates gave her words of encouragement after the goal.
“The first goal that I let in, they said, it’s OK, it’s not my fault,” Desjardins said. “They kept telling me, I got it.”
Prosser’s goal was one of the few things that went right for Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland (3-2-1) on Monday night.
“We got outcoached, we got outplayed and we got outworked,” Red Hornets coach Dana Berube said. “It wasn’t our day, and we have to turn the page quick because we have another three or four tough games in the next seven or eight days.”
Lewiston’s Lilly Gish tied the game at 1-1 with a slap shot from the right circle that went past Edward Little goalie McKenzi Horton (nine saves). Horton got a pad on the puck, but it found an opening.
“The defense, Charlotte (Cloutier) and Lilly Gish, they are involved in the offense as much as defense,” Dumont said. “They did a great job distributing the puck, they moved it around, they did an awesome job.”
Dube, who had an assist on Gish’s goal, recorded her second point of the night when Leah Landry made a pass to Dube in the slot, and Dube quickly shot the puck past Horton.
With about three minutes left in the first, Landry’s pass from behind the goal line deflected off Toree St. Hilaire and into the goal for a 3-1 Lewiston lead.
“It’s the way (our line) is set up,” Landry said. “I feel like the passes are open from that angle. So I have been doing that lately.”
Both teams had a power plays in the second period. Lewiston took advantage when St. Hilaire potted her second goal of the afternoon with less than five minutes remaining in the period to make it 4-1.
Horton stopped Landry on a breakaway attempt in the second, but in the third period Landry scored on a breakaway to stretch the lead to 5-1.
“I decided to take the opening when it’s there,” Landry said of the goal.
Gish fired a shot from a little behind the goal line that deflected off of Horton’s pads into the goal for a 6-1 lead.
Alyssa Marcoux added Lewiston’s seventh goal late in the game.
Berube believes the Red Hornets can bounce back from the loss to their rivals.
“I still believe in this team. I don’t think we showed the caliber of team we are today,” Berube said. “Lewiston is a very good team, that’s not taking nothing away from them, they earned every second of (the win).”
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