LEWISTON — The Lewiston boys hockey team had a case of the Blues in Wednesday’s Class A preliminary game against rival St. Dom’s — and it was a good thing for the Blue Devils
Dylan Blue and Ethan Blue each scored twice in a 6-1 victory at The Colisee.
Ethan said he and his twin brother are very competitive when trying to outscore each other.
“I told the coach I’d get the hat trick first, but that didn’t end up happening,” Ethan said. “We do it all the time; we have a little competition and stuff. It’s part of the game, it’s fun.”
Dylan Blue got things started quickly in the first period when he found the back of the net 14 seconds into the game. Andrew Theriault and Cody Dionne had the assists.
“It’s pretty much a set play,” Dylan said. “We work it behind the net and the goalie is looking back behind him and pass it out in front and bury it.”
Lewiston coach Jamie King told his team before the game he wanted an early goal.
“That was the message at the beginning of the game: start early and often,” King said. “We started early, but it took us some time to get some other ones. But a lot of guys contributing tonight.”
The eighth-seeded Blue Devils (7-11-1) maintained control of the puck for most of the opening period, outshooting the ninth-seeded Saints 12-4.
“We came out flat, we came out like our legs weren’t ready to move,” St. Dom’s coach Dan D’Auteuil said. “We were slow and they just fed on it — they were flying. They beat us to every puck and outmuscled us at every puck, they outplayed us. It seemed we couldn’t get that step, and when we finally got the steps, we couldn’t get the bounces.”
Lewiston went on the game’s first power play and Ethan Blue didn’t waste much time, stretching the Blue Devils’ lead to 2-0 less than five minutes into the second period.
St. Dom’s (7-12) had a chance to regain some momentum on the man-advantage but the Lewiston penalty killers kept the puck mostly in St. Dom’s defensive end.
Ethan Blue scored his second goal of the game when his shot deflected off St. Dom’s goalie Jayden Lynn’s (27 saves) glove and into the net with under 30 seconds remaining in the second.
“We practice the power play a fair amount in practice,” Ethan Blue said. “We were going through the motions and I really picked the time to shoot — it worked out.”
Early in the third period, Dylan Blue and Cody Dionne fed Andrew Theriault, who finished off the play, giving Lewiston a 4-0 lead.
Dylan Blue added his second goal of the game when he swept the puck around Lynn 6:27 into the third period. Theriault and Ethan Blue had the assists.
The Blue Devils’ depth helped them win.
“They were running two lines, so they were getting gassed pretty early and we were running three at the start,” Dylan said. “It wasn’t hard to skate around a gassed team like that, and we were moving the puck well off the start.”
Timothee Ouellete’s power-play goal got the Saints on the board with under five minutes to play.
“It gave them a little bit of an edge to keep playing and finishing the game off,” D’Auteuil said of Ouellette’s goal. “Otherwise, it could keep getting worse and worse.”
Aizyk Laliberte capped the scoring with about three minutes remaining.
Gabe Pomerleau stopped 12 of 13 shots in goal for Lewiston.
Lewiston moves on to play top-seeded Falmouth (16-2) at 7:10 p.m. Saturday at Family Ice Center in Falmouth.
“We need to continue to play like we did tonight,” King said. “We need to sharpen up our skills a little more in our defensive zone. We should be OK, we are looking forward to it. It’s going to be a good game.”
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