LEWISTON — The Lewiston boys’ hockey team doesn’t go down easy.
The Blue Devils fell behind for the fourth straight game Wednesday night, but like the previous three times they rallied for a win to stay undefeated.
Down by two goals in the first, and still by one with less than six minutes left in regulation, Lewiston scored four goals to put away Greely, 6-3, at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
Kurtis Pelletier closed out the game with a natural hat trick after Ryan Pomerleau tied the game 3-3 with 5:36 left.
“We just come around and we work hard,” said Pelletier, whose second and third goals were against empty nets.
“I think the kids feel a sense of urgency when they’re coming from behind, and they play better, and they work harder,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “So that’s good, but I got to do a better job getting them ready the first period because playoff hockey, you dig yourself a hole, you might not be able to get back.”
The Rangers (9-2) put the Blue Devils (13-0) on their heels in the first minute, with Jake MacDonald backhanding in the first goal 52 seconds into the game on a counter rush.
Lewiston netted the equalizer less than five minutes later on John Mathon’s tally from Michael Belleau and Joseph Gendron, but Greely scored twice on the power play, the goals coming from Caleb Duff and MacDonald again.
MacDonald’s goal on the man-advantage came after Lewiston’s first power play was cut short by a Blue Devils penalty. The Rangers’ junior forward scored at the point off a feed from Andy Moore with eight seconds left in the 5-on-4.
“We have some very skilled players, and we work on the power play almost every day,” Greely coach Barry Mothes said. “We’re confident in it, and it was great to see the poise and the playmaking on the two goals that we got there in the first period. Those were some great goals.”
The Blue Devils got a power-play goal of their own early in the second to cut the deficit to 3-2. Logan Tripp put the puck in, with Sam Laroche and Damon Bossie providing the assists.
Lewiston later shut down Greely’s third power play by not allowing a shot on goal, but the Rangers held the lead going into the third thanks to seven saves in the frame by goalie Jared Swisher.
“Even the second period, we know Lewiston has come back on a lot of teams this year, particularly in the third, but in the second period, obviously we lost that period 1-0, but I still thought we were battling,” Mothes said.
Pomerleau’s game-tying goal came on his third solid chance against Swisher in the final frame. He was able to keep control of the puck between two defenders coming across the blue line, then beat Swisher, finally.
That came just over a minute after Greely’s Christopher Williams rang a wrister off the post that had the Rangers’ bench thinking of a dagger in Lewiston’s comeback dreams.
Instead, Pelletier started putting the nail in the Rangers’ coffin with 2:59 left. Pomerleau found him from the right corner, and Pelletier found space above Swisher’s shoulder.
Greely took a penalty 12 seconds later, but were able to get an offensive zone faceoff 40 seconds after that, which gave Mothes a chance to use his timeout. But the Blue Devils won the faceoff, and Pelletier went the other way for an empty-net, power-play goal.
“It kind of felt nice, have a little breathing room for us,” Pelletier said.
“The empty-net stuff, it’s tough to give up those goals, but we’re trying to work on those situations,” Mothes said. “And obviously at 4-3, you know, we’re still trying to get one back obviously to tie it. And at 5-3 we’re still trying to get another goal.”
Pelletier finished his hat trick with 45.2 seconds left.
“Because he’s had some success now, I think he’s feeling pretty confident,” Belleau said. “He can taste it a little bit.”
Swisher made 23 saves for Greely, while Jacob Smith stopped 19 shots for Lewiston.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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