LEWISTON — Lewiston had a devil of a time trying to score goals on Bangor goalie Derek Fournier during the regular season last year.
That wasn’t the case when the two teams met for the first time this season Wednesday night.
They weren’t always pretty, but goals aplenty went in during the Blue Devils’ 12-0 victory in a Class A North boys’ hockey game at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
The Blue Devils (5-0) needed overtime to score two goals against Fournier on home ice last year, then were shut out for the lone time last season when the teams met in Bangor. But Wednesday’s game played more like last year’s postseason matchup for Lewiston, which it won 6-3 going away.
It took a 5-on-3 power play to get the scoring started. Dustin Larochelle put a shot off Fournier and in with just one second remaining on the two-man advantage midway through the first period. That came on the Blue Devils’ 10th shot on goal.
The Blue Devils tallied in traffic five shots later, with Joe Bisson connecting on a rebound of Sam Frechette’s shot.
“The first couple minutes we were testing (Fournier) out and seeing where we should shoot on him, and we just decided we needed to crash the net,” Bisson said. “And that’s what we did, and we scored.”
That 2-0 lead — equalling the amount of goals Lewiston scored on Fournier in two regular-season games last year — stuck after 15 minutes of play, with the Blue Devils outshooting the Rams (4-2) 21-5.
It only took two shots and a handful of seconds for Lewiston to light the lamp again. Frechette won the opening faceoff of the second period, and the puck went to Alex Robert, who skated up ice and fired a shot on Fournier. Frechette received the rebound and fired a shot wide-right from the left side, but the puck deflected off Bangor’s Nick Cowperthwaite and past Fournier just nine seconds into the frame.
“The last thing I said before we came out for the second (period) is the third goal is really important against this team,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “I’m glad it happened. I didn’t except it to happen that quickly, but they responded well.”
“When we gave up the first goal in the start of the second, nine seconds in, and just kind of — we were positive, it was 2-0 going into the second — and just, hey, they put it to us tonight and they were clearly the better team on the ice,” Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said.
Lewiston put in two more goals late in the second. Cole Ouellette scored off an assist by Larochelle with a little more than three minutes remaining in the period. The goal came less than 20 seconds after he rang a shot off the left post.
Alex Rivet made it 5-0 less than a minute later, tallying 13 seconds into a power play on assists from brothers Joe and Nick Bisson.
Fournier’s night came to an end one period early, giving way to junior backup Zach Alden.
“We took Derek out after the second period. He wasn’t feeling too good, he already had (37) shots, and he’d been sick the last couple days,” Paradis said. “You don’t want to say the game was over after the second, but you want to give some other guys some ice time and go forward from there.”
“It always feels good to put away a great goalie, like Fournier is, but we don’t really think much of that,” Bisson said.
Frechette tried to out-do himself with another quick goal to start the third period, but he was one second too slow, putting the puck in 10 seconds into the frame. Ouellette scored his second goal of the game two minutes later, ripping a shot from the left side through Alden.
Larochelle (wearing uniform No. 8) made it 8-0, then Joe Bisson added his second goal of the game just over a minute later.
Defenseman Ryan Bossie made it 10-0 with less than five minutes to go. Jack Leblond tallied the Blue Devils’ 11th goal 23 seconds later, with the running clock ticking down. Cody Doyon rounded out the scoring.
“This was the best game so far this year in terms of all 20 guys moving the puck and really utilizing their teammates, finding good ice, taking quick shots, moving the puck,” Belleau said. “And I thought they got rid of the puck when they had to, and I thought that they got traffic in front of the net when they had to.”
The Blue Devils had 11 different players collect points, with Jeromey Rancourt tallying three assists and Jean-Luc Dostie adding two of his own.
“Tonight, I’m pleased with the effort of the overall team,” Belleau said. “It was spread around pretty well.”
Jacob Strout stopped all 13 shots he faced for the shutout.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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