LEWISTON — The Lewiston boys hockey team pulled of its fourth consecutive victory to open the season, beating Bangor 4-3 at The Colisee on Wednesday.
All four of Lewiston’s (4-0) goals were scored in the second period.
“We knew they were going to be a tough team, everyone’s been talking about Bangor being the top team in the state,” Blue Devils coach Jamie King said. “I told the boys to be ready for a battle, and they did well. Coach Quinn (Paradis) is a good coach, and we knew that they were going to come hard, and they did.”
The Rams (3-1) started the scoring with the lone first-period goal, scored by Chase Caron at 8:58 in the first period. Caron was assisted by Preston Henry and Miles Randall.
Lewiston only put two shots on goal in the opening period, both of which were saved by Bangor goalie Cole Fernald (13 saves). Deano Scalia also earned 15 minutes in the penalty box for a push from behind on Bangor’s Ty Walker.
King said the Blue Devils started off slow with a couple of penalties — like Scalia’s push from behind — but the team worked hard to turn it around in the second period. He encouraged the players to put at least 10 shots on goal to increase their likelihood of scoring in the second period.
Early in the second, Scalia scored off an assist from Colten Daniels to bring the score to 1-1.
“They got 10 shots and four goals,” King said. “Deano started off the scoring, and he was the guy in the box for 15 minutes, so he came in and shot the first puck and it went in and kind of got the bench moving.”
Less than a minute later, at the 3:43 mark, Jackson Guimond scored Bangor’s second goal with a top shelf shot into the right corner that was set up by Michael Moscone and Walker.
Lewiston answered at the 4:33 mark, when Dylan Blue scored the first of his two goals to tie the game at 2-2. Cody Dionne and Jacoby Oliviera were credited with helpers.
Cam Plourde scored Lewiston’s third goal at 9:21 off a power play.
“That was a nice goal by Cam. All night we’d been struggling on the power play, and we just say, ‘Move the puck and get pucks to the net,’” King said. “It looked like it went behind the net, but it kind of got deflected back into the front and it hit the goalie and went back in.”
Lewiston’s fourth and final goal came about three minutes later, when Nate Metivier and Andrew Theriault set up Blue for his second goal of the night.
Blue earned the team’s hard hat, for being the player of the game, following the game.
“Tonight felt really good, 4-0 is obviously a great start on the year,” Blue said. “We had a really good second period. We kind of got a little comfortable on the third, but I think a win’s a win and it doesn’t matter how you get it. The boys played well today.”
Blue also said that the team’s flat start was likely due to not being able to practice Monday or Tuesday because of the heavy storm that caused flooding across Maine.
“Obviously, legs are going to be a little weaker,” Blue said. “I thought we responded well in the second period. Bangor came up pretty good in the first and we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day. Those kids have a lot of older talent.”
King even said Wednesday’s game was up in the air until around noon when he and Paradis got the all clear.
Paradis, meanwhile, said that despite the disappointing result, the loss provided a good lesson for the Rams to learn early in the season.
“We had a lot of good things that went well, we had a few things that went wrong, like going 0 for 3 or 0 for 4 on the power play tonight, which was a disappointment,” Paradis said. “It was a strong point of our game going forward, but that’s got to improve a little bit. And both teams were a little rusty tonight.”
Paradis said he liked how Bangor played in the first and third periods, and that the team “just had a rough” second period.
He also said this was the Rams’ first time trailing this season.
The Rams scored their third and final goal at 8:12 of the third period, when Walker found the back of the net off an assist from Guimond.
“I thought we liked our chances, we were right there,” Paradis said. “We had some great chances late in the third to tie it up and we just missed. Overall, not a bad game for us, not a great game, but plenty of room for improvement.”
Blue Devils goalie Gabe Pomerleau (22 saves) preserved the two-goal lead with back-to-back saves on an initial and then rebound shot from in the crease with about two minutes remaining in the second period.
Pomerleau came into Wednesday’s game having earned back-to-back shutouts.
“I just guess where the puck is sometimes; like the one in the second period, I didn’t know where it was,” Pomerleau said. “I just tried to be as big as I can, and it hit me. I got to trust my D to be able to clear them out, so it was a good team win today.
“When our team plays good and I bail them out in the situation here and there, I just try to do my job at any given opportunity.”
The undefeated Blue Devils next face undefeated St. Dom’s (3-0) on Friday at The Colisee.
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