LEWISTON — Scoring wasn’t a problem for Lewiston in its season-opening victory over the Windham/Bonny Eagle/Westbrook co-op team.
Behind Ethan Blue, Cam Plourde and Deano Scalia’s hat tricks, the Blue Devils defeated the Trail Blazers 12-4 in a boys hockey game at The Colisee on Saturday night.
Plourde and Scalia play together on the Blue Devils’ second line.
“The message was, ‘Get pucks to the net and things will happen,'” Lewiston coach Jamie King said. “They went ahead and did it.”
Lewiston did the bulk of the scoring in the first period, lighting the lamp eight times on 11 shots on goal.
Trail Blazers coach Bobby Fothergill said the start of the game isn’t indicative of the potential of his team.
“I don’t think we are as bad as the score says,” Fothergill said. “Whenever you come up here, you are in the aura of this building, you are playing Lewiston — there’s something about it. It’s a tough place to play. They have a good team over there.”
Ethan Blue, a defenseman, started the scoring barrage in the opening period with a point shot 18 seconds in off a feed from Cody Dionne.
“It was a long week of practice, so we got to know how each other plays,” Blue said. “It’s the first game of the year, so it was a little shaky. Without the strength of our forwards, we couldn’t do it without them.”
After the Trail Blazers had some zone time following the goal, Plourde sent a cross-ice pass in the offensive zone to Aizak Laliberte, who beat Trail Blazers starting goalie Jacob Marston two minutes into the first period.
Plourde scored on a partial breakaway when he went to take a shot, but the puck rolled off his stick and still crossed the goal line nearly six minutes into the opening stanza.
Scalia, a freshman, got into the scoring act 18 seconds after Plourde’s tally for a 4-0 advantage at the 6:10 mark.
“He has a quick release,” King said of Scalia. “We’ve seen him in the scrimmages score a couple of goals and he just fires that puck. It’s just nice to see that line get going.”
The Trail Blazers called a timeout after the goal and pulled Marston (six saves) for Sawyer Perkins (two saves).
It brought life to the Windham co-op, as Colby Haskell found the back of the net 17 seconds after Scalia’s tally, and Shaun Traina’s shot squirted through Lewiston goalie Gabe Pomerleau (15 saves) 12 minutes into the period to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Fothergill reminded the Trail Blazers during the timeout that it’s the things you do away from the puck that bring you success.
“We weren’t doing the little things,” Fothergill said. “I said, ‘You guys have to reset. We can score four goals, we can score five, we have that depth to do it.’ We responded. We got back a little bit, but our (defensive) zone coverage just collapsed. We are going to work on it. It’s a long season and we have stuff to build on.”
Lewiston scored four times in the final three minutes of the opening frame. Ethan and Dylan Blue scored back-to-back goals, stretching the advantage to 6-2. Scalia found the back of the net again before Hayden Brown — an Edward Little transfer — scored right before the buzzer for an 8-2 lead.
Plourde had two tallies in the second period to complete his hat trick, while Scalia and Ethan Blue notched their third goals in the frame, helping the Blue Devils to a 12-3 advantage.
Ethan Blue wasn’t too concerned about completing his hat trick.
“This game was what it was, and just keeping composure was our biggest target out there,” Blue said. “Things were getting a little out of hand at times and we were getting lazy. We just need to keep our heads to it and we will be all right.”
Lucas LaForest scored on the power play in the period for the Trail Blazers.
Trevor Baillargeon scored for the Trail Blazers in the third period for the only goal in the stanza.
“That’s what we talked about in between (periods): I don’t care if we win, lose or draw, let’s go compete in the third period,” Fothergill said. “Let’s win that period.”
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