AUBURN — Edward Little started strong and finished strong, but in between had to withstand a Lewiston pushback.
The Red Eddies went from down one to up one in less than half of a minute in the third period to edge the Blue Devils 4-3 in a Class A boys hockey rivalry clash at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Wednesday.
With Edward Little trailing 3-2 with five minutes left in the game, Campbell Cassidy tied the game with an unassisted goal, then Andrew Clements scored the game-winner 28 seconds later.
“I had a good amount of speed coming into the neutral zone, and their defenseman was a little flat-footed, so I cut to the middle, I just shot short-side and the goalie left a little opening,” Cassidy said. “The goalie got the best of me all night, but I was lucky to get one there. And it was huge for us. I mean, we had four minutes left.”
“Momentum is definitely a real thing,” Cassidy added. “It just boosted everyone’s energy, and Andrew Clements got a good call right after, which is huge for us.”
The Red Eddies (3-1) then had to survive two penalties in the final minute to hold on for the win. Cassidy won the faceoff after both penalties and the Blue Devils (2-1) were held without a shot.
“Credit to Campbell. I would give him star of the game, because of what he did there at the end and getting us that tying goal,” Edward Little coach Norm Gagne said.
The Red Eddies opened the game with a flurry. Peyton Dyer got a mini breakaway from the blue line and fired a shot on Lewiston goalie Ben Cloutier 30 seconds into the game. Cloutier (27 saves) then had to make two tough saves against Cassidy over the next two minutes, the first one with his glove and the second one got lost under him before it was cleared out of the crease by the Blue Devils defense.
The Red Eddies kept the momentum with back-to-back power plays starting four minutes into the first. That included 17 seconds of 5-on-3 play before Edward Little scored the game’s first goal during the second 5-on-4 portion.
Tate Morse was able to push a shot inside the left post past Cloutier, who had made two initial saves out in front. Drew Smith and Gavin Levesque earned the assists on the opening goal.
“We started out flat and they came at us hard,” Lewiston coach Jamie King said.
The Blue Devils’ penalty kill was stiffer the next time around, holding the Red Eddies to just one shot on goal. Lewiston also recorded a shot of its own while shorthanded, but Red Eddies goalie Gage Ducharme (17 saves) stopped Dylan Blue on a 2-on-1 pass from Cody Dionne.
Just after Lewiston killed off the penalty, Ducharme made consecutive saves against Colton Daniels and Aizyk Laliberte, first to the left then to the right.
Lewiston didn’t do much with its first power play with just under three minutes left in the first. Ducharme easily made a save on the Blue Devils’ lone shot on goal, and at the other end Cassidy put a dangerous shot on Cloutier with 59 seconds left in the period.
The Red Eddies, who outshot the Blue Devils 16-7 in the first, took 1:37 of a 5-on-3 into the second period.
Edward Little was mostly quiet on the two-man advantage to start the middle frame, but Brody Keefe made some noise by firing a shot from the left circle past Cloutier 1:20 into the period. Peyton Dyer and Levesque provided the assists.
Lewiston took advantage of even-strength play the rest of the period, tying the game 2-2 on two goals less than two minutes apart.
Cody Dionne scored unassisted off a faceoff after collecting the loose puck from behind the net at the mid-point of the period to get the Blue Devils on the board. Then Ethan Blue fired a rocket from the right circle soon after Ducharme stopped a Blue-to-Laliberte 2-on-1. Daniels and Jaden Maynard assisted on the tying goal.
“Settled them down second period and just told them, ‘Get one and they’ll come,'” King said. “And we tied it up, then we went ahead (in the third period) and thought for sure we were starting to put it to them.”
“We took it to them in the first and they took it to us in the second,” Gagne said. “And then I said to my boys, I said, ‘You know, it comes down to mental toughness and mental discipline. And I told you before the game, rivalry games comes down to emotions, and you’ve got to be able to control them.’ We got the better of it tonight, but we’ve got a long way to go and really working on the controlling the emotions part.”
That 2-2 score held going into the second intermission, though Hayden Brown did put pressure on Cloutier with less than a minute left on a rush, and Cloutier lost sight of the rebound attempt before it cycled away from the goal area.
The Blue Devils scored a power-play goal early in the third to take their first lead. Luke Pomerleau won the faceoff and sent it back to Ethan Blue, whose shot from the left point found the back of the net 2:30 into the frame.
The Red Eddies finished strong, however, as Cassidy and Clements turned the one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead.
“It’s always good to get a rivalry win,” Cassidy said. “Especially like fighting hard from behind is huge for us, knowing we can do that and in the future it can happen.”
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