The eight seniors on the Lewiston High School varsity hockey team in 1975 pose for their picture in this Sun Journal photo. The team beat St. Dom’s for the state championship and lost in the finals of the New England championship to East Providence.
Lewiston High School boys hockey team has almost always been a serious contender on the Maine boys hockey scene. The program earned its first state championship in 1929, but the Blue Devils didn’t win more than two in a row until the mid-1970s when they claimed four straight titles and became the school’s first true hockey dynasty.
Heading into the 1973-74 season, Lewiston’s most recent state title win was in 1968, which was sandwiched between four consecutive St. Dominic Academy championships (1964-67) and five in a row by Waterville (1969-73). Waterville also claimed New England championships in 1970, ’71 and ’72.
The 1973-74 Blue Devils were made up mostly of sophomores and juniors, with only five seniors — forwards Ray Charest, Jim Frechette and Dan Longley, defenseman Mike LeBlanc and goalie Andy Pelletier — on the varsity team.
While the Devils were young, their goal was to win in ’74.
“Oh, yes, this is largely an underclass squad, but that doesn’t mean we are thinking at all about next year,” Lewiston coach Don Girard told the Lewiston Daily Sun before the 1974 New England championship tournament. “We’re thinking about how far we can go.”
The Blue Devils entered the season having already gained valuable experience. Most of the players were on the team the previous year, when Lewiston lost to Waterville in the 1973 state title game, but then got revenge in the New England Championships before falling to Burrillville (Rhode Island) in that tournament’s title game.
The Blue Devils finished the 1973-74 regular season with a 16-8 record, playing State League games (against Brunswick, Edward Little, St. Dom’s and Waterville) and non-league games (against prep schools and out-of-state opponents).
Some of the main catalysts, for the ’73-74 team and the first three seasons of the dynasty, were sophomores. In fact, one of the Blue Devils’ top lines was made up entirely of second-year players — center Ron Dumont and the Boucher twins, Dan and Dave — who were particularly instrumental in Lewiston’s state playoff run in early March, which included a win over St. Dom’s and then two over Waterville to capture the 1974 state championship.
Next up was the New England Championship tournament, which, like the Maine state tournament, was held in Lewiston at the Central Maine Youth Center — now known as The Colisee — for most of the 1970s. The New Englands featured the state champions and runner-ups from Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont for a single-elimination tournament during the second and third weekends of March (Connecticut and Massachusetts stopped participating in the region championship in the 1960s).
The Blue Devils had no trouble with Spaulding, the Vermont runner-up, winning 7-0, but they then lost to Waterville 5-2 in the semifinals. Waterville, like Lewiston a year earlier, ended up losing to Burrillville in the New England championship game.
Dave Boucher finished the postseason with six goals and three assists in the five games, which tied for the team lead in points with junior Don Vallee (eight goals and one assist), while Dan Boucher tallied the third-most postseason points with a goal and six assists. Dumont scored two goals and had three assists, but only played in three games because he was injured against St. Dom’s in the state tournament opener. He returned for the New England tournament.
Another sophomore, Bill Provencher, was the team’s No. 1 goalie during the postseason.
THE REPEAT
This Sun Journal photo shows the action during the state Class A final between Lewiston and Waterville in 1974, which the Blue Devils won.
Lewiston rolled through its competition in the 1974-75 regular season, winning 20 games and suffering only two losses — both to Waterville — and earning the No. 1 seed in the state playoffs.
The Blue Devils didn’t have to face the No. 2 Purple Panthers in the state tournament because third-seeded St. Dom’s dispatched Waterville twice in the double-elimination tournament to reach the state title game. Lewiston, meanwhile, advanced to the championship by beating both of its Twin City rivals, St. Dom’s and Edward Little.
It was the first time since 1967 that Lewiston and St. Dom’s met in the state championship game. More than 2,000 fans, including Gov. Jim Longley, showed up for the clash. Provencher shut down the Saints and the Blue Devils notched a decisive 6-0 win and their second straight state title — their first repeat since 1962-63.
After coming up short at New Englands in 1973 and ’74, the Blue Devils were committed to capturing the regional crown in 1975.
“I think winning the state championship is really great, but to win the New Englands would be the greatest, and this year we have the best chance to do it,” senior captain Don Vallee said in a story that ran in the Lewiston Evening Journal’s student page before the New England Tournament began.
The Blue Devils again cruised past Spaulding, again the Vermont runner-up, in the first round, winning 11-1. Eight of the 11 goals were scored by the junior class.
That victory set up another date between the Blue Devils and the Saints in the semifinals, and Lewiston doubled up St. Dom’s 6-3 to reach the New England final.
The Blue Devils lost a heartbreaker to East Providence in the title game. They led 4-2 heading into the third period but gave up two third-period goals, which sent the game into overtime. Randy Wilson, the brother of longtime NHL player and general manager Ron Wilson, scored in OT to give East Providence a 5-4 victory.
A pair of fellow juniors, Marc Cloutier and Dan Lavoie, joined Dumont (eight goals and four assists), Dave Boucher (three goals, six assists) and Dan Boucher (four goals, five assists) as offensive threats for Lewiston in the playoffs. Cloutier tallied eight goals and three assists, and Lavoie scored four goals. Vallee had another solid postseason with five goals and three assists.
In March of 1977, Lewiston again met Waterville in the state championship, winning again, 3-2. Sun Journal photo
THREE-PEAT
Lewiston was nearly perfect in the 1975-76 regular season, going 16-1 in league play to capture the No. 1 seed. The Blue Devils outscored the opposition 153-33.
They continued to light the lamp in the postseason. In six playoff games, between the state tournament and New Englands, they outscored their opponents 45-10.
They earned their third straight state championship and captured the elusive New England title by defeating Berlin, New Hampshire, in front of a reported 4,000 fans at the Central Maine Youth Center. For the first time, Maine claimed New England championships in hockey and boys basketball, as Rumford High School won the basketball title.
As in the two previous postseasons, the Boucher-Dumont line led the way in their final year of high school hockey. Dave Boucher (six goals and 11 assists) and Dumont (10 goals and seven assists) each had 17 points, while Dan Boucher finished with 14 points (six goals and eight assists).
FOUR IN A ROW
The following season appeared to be the start of a new era for Lewiston hockey. Not only had Dumont, the Bouchers and the rest of the prolific Class of 1976 graduated but coach Don Girard stepped down and was replaced by Norm Bureau.
Instead, 1976-77 was a continuation of the program’s success. The Blue Devils were again dominant, finishing 20-2-1 in the regular season, including 14-2 in league play.
The supporting cast of the previous season, players like Bob Charest, John Theberge, Dave Lepage and Jim Erskine, became some of Lewiston’s key contributors in the 1977 postseason.
Charest and Erskine each had four goals and an assist. Theberge contributed a pair of goals and two assists, while Lepage, a defenseman, had a goal and an assist.
Dan Guay led all Lewiston scorers in the playoffs with six points (three goals and three assists).
Erskine scored the biggest goal of the postseason, the game-winner in double overtime of the state final, as the Blue Devils stretched their state tournament winning streak to 12 games by defeating Waterville in the championship game 3-2.
They didn’t have the chance to defend their New England championship. Due to conflicting dates with state tournaments and the cancellation of the New England basketball tournament, the hockey tournament was called off.
THE AFTERMATH
Lewiston’s state tournament winning streak ended, at 13 games, in 1978. After defeating Mt. Ararat 7-3 in the tournament opener and losing to St. Dom’s in the second game, the Blue Devils battled back from the elimination bracket to defeat Waterville and force a rematch with the Saints. In the state final, St. Dom’s defeated Lewiston 4-1.
The New England Championship tournament returned in 1978 in Providence, Rhode Island. Lewiston and St. Dom’s won their first-round games to set up a semifinal showdown, their third postseason matchup of 1978. The Saints squeaked by the Devils, 3-2, but then lost to Mount St. Charles of Rhode Island in the New England final.
Lewiston went on a similar state championship run in the 1980s, winning three in a row from ’82 to ’84. The Blue Devils also won four of the first six tournaments in the ’90s, and recently claimed three in a row from 2016-18 and their fourth in five years with a perfect season in 2020.
Dumont became the Lewiston girls coach and led the Blue Devils to state titles in 2009, 2015, 2020 and 2022.
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