LEWISTON — Scarborough’s seven-game season-opening shutout streak ended only 90 seconds into a midseason girls hockey showdown with Lewiston on Wednesday.
Despite the quick ending to the streak, goals proved difficult for the Blue Devils to get in a hard-fought 2-0 victory at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“We knew that they were going to be a tough opponent,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said. “We know they play real good defensively, got a good goalie, so this is a real good challenge for us.”
On a power play 37 seconds into the game, the Blue Devils (7-0) used up nearly half of the man-advantage before Leah Dube scored on a wobbly shot from the slot over Red Storm (7-1) goalie Ariella Swett. Scarborough had outscored its first seven opponents 35-0 entering the game.
Dumont said getting an early power play and converting on it “absolutely helps … couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Lewiston, which came into the game having outscored its opponents 54-1 (nine goals per game), got on the scoreboard again nine minutes into the opening period. Leah Landry fired a one-time shot from the slot past Swett off a pass from Brie Dube.
“We talked it about as a coaching staff, and we thought the first period wasn’t our strongest, but we improved throughout the whole game,” Scarborough coach Taylor Fowler said.
Swett faced seven shots in the first, stopping five. She turned away all seven shots against her in a scoreless second, as the Red Storm failed to accumulate any on-target shots at the other end.
“One of our weaknesses is we’re not an offensive team. Our defense is our strength,” Fowler said. “We just have to work on our scoring.”
Swett stopped eight more shots in the third, to give her 20 saves on 22 shots faced.
“She’s definitely, definitely a huge part of our defense and a huge part of our team. She always comes up with some big saves,” Fowler said.
Lewiston’s defense, meanwhile, allowed just three shots to get to goalie Camree St. Hilaire, who now has six shutouts this season.
“Defensively I was real happy with them,” Dumont said.
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