Despite losing his glove diving for a previous shot, EL goalie Gavin Toussaint stands his ground as Lewiston’s Alex Robert, foreground and Sam Frechette swat at the bouncing puck out in front of the net during the second period of Monday afternoons game at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
AUBURN — Edward Little had rival Lewiston on the ropes in the first period, holding a dangerous Blue Devils attack scoreless. But the Red Eddies’ best chance at a goal of their own was waved off, and by early in the third period they waved bye to any chance at an upset victory.
Lewiston shook off a forgettable first period, scored two power-play goals in the second, then added two even-strength goals in the third period for a 4-1 victory in a Class A North boys’ hockey clash at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Monday afternoon.
“We’ll take it,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “It’s not perfect. It wasn’t pretty. But it’s another win, and we’ll learn from it, and we’ll move on.”
The respective coaches’ moods flipped from the beginning of the game to the end. While Belleau thought his team “came out flat,” EL coach Norm Gagne called his team’s first period “perfect.”
“I was really pleased with what we’d done,” Gagne said. “We took a penalty, but we killed it. We did a good job with that.”
The Red Eddies (4-4) were doing a good job of quieting the Blue Devils’ (9-0) offense, holding it to an uncharacteristically low five shots on goal in the first.
EL had just two of its own. A potential third one came on a deflected Dylan Campbell point shot that went past Lewiston goalie Conrad Albert. But the official perched next to the goal immediately signaled no goal after deeming that Aaron Perkins had knocked the shot down with a high stick.
“It hurt the momentum. It really did,” Gagne said. “That’s part of the game, and like I told them, ‘You have to reset and just go out and do what you got to do.'”
It also gave Lewiston a chance to reset as well. Senior defenseman Ryan Bossie said the almost-goal caught the Blue Devils off-guard. They went on a penalty kill seconds later, but were able to survive the two minutes without allowing a shot on Albert.
The Red Eddies killed off a penalty of their own late in the frame, with Gavin Toussaint turning away two shots.
A more difficult kill came early in the second. Aaron Kane went to the box 2:48 in, and Campbell joined him 1:09 later, taking two EL defenders off the ice. To make matters worse, Ben Cassidy broke his stick on the initial 5-on-3 faceoff, putting the Red Eddies at an even bigger disadvantage.
It took Ben St. Laurent and the Blue Devils just 18 seconds into the two-man-advantage to strike. He blasted a rebound past Toussaint, with Owen Cox and Bossie collecting assists. The trio connected in the same order on the 5-on-4 just 19 seconds later to make it 2-0.
“We move the puck well, usually, when teams put us on the power play,” Bossie said. “We have a dangerous line that can move the puck. A lot of vets, so we have a lot of intelligence when we’re on the power play. We know where each other are on the ice a lot, so when teams put us on the power play we know that we have a good chance of scoring.”
“It was critical,” Belleau said. “Any time you get a game like that, you get a power play, you need to capitalize on it. We did. That changed the momentum of the game to our favor and we built off that.”
More penalties denied the teams from playing much even-strength hockey the remainder of the period, and posts denied Lewiston’s Alex Robert and Sam Frechette from adding to their team’s lead, keeping it a 2-0 game heading into the third.
Robert wouldn’t be denied again to open the third. On a 2-on-1 rush, Evan Cox found Robert from the right corner, and Robert quickly buried a shot from in front 33 seconds into the period to make it 3-0.
“It was a big goal, and we talked about getting the next goal in the locker room,” Belleau said. “We talked about it would be nice if we could pop the first one. And obviously to come out the first shift and get that, that certainly helped.”
Frechette also got his revenge on the goal frame in the final period. Taking the puck from his own end, he slithered through the EL defense from end to end before beating Toussaint with an open shot just under seven minutes in.
“The guy should have been picked up,” Gagne said. “I said to the team, I said, ‘It wasn’t fair to Gavin. Gavin played a hell of a hockey game.’ He really played a great hockey game.
“He gave us a chance to win had we stayed out of the penalty box.”
Toussaint finished with 27 saves on 31 shots. Albert made 10 saves for the Blue Devils. The only shot he didn’t save (besides the waved-off goal) was a point shot ripped by Ben Lane-Robichaud to end the shutout 17 seconds after Frechette’s goal.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
EL goalie Gavin Toussaint throws out his left pad and denies Lewiston’s Ben St. Laurent during Monday afternoons game at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn. St.Laurent notched a goal later in the game and Lewiston went on to win 4-1. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Lewiston’s Dustin Larochelle tries to make a pass as he falls to the ice after being tripped by Edward Little’s Aaron Kane during the second period of Monday afternoon’s game in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
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