LEWISTON — The two entities that still matter the most to a majority of hockey fans in this city — sorry, Maineiacs, Black Bears, Pirates, Bruins, Canadiens — met again for the hundred-and-umpteenth time Tuesday night.

It mattered not one whit if the price were a state championship, regional championship, city championship, holiday tournament championship or all-you-can-eat-fries-in-the-food-court championship.

St. Dom’s played Lewiston. Lewiston played St. Dom’s. The end.

Two proud programs sped onto the ice at Androscoggin Bank Colisee, barely able to wait until the Zamboni departed and the rectangle above center ice trickled down to the allotted 10-minute pre-game skate.

Captains charged through the tunnel toward the blurry Maineiacs logo in a human game of chicken, veering in opposite directions at the last possible breath in a demonstration of intensity and bravado that segued perfectly into the game itself.

Thousands ate it up, storming the second half of a championship doubleheader and forming what was, by the naked-eye test, the largest crowd to watch a hockey game at any level in the venerable arena this winter.

For a sport that has evolved and grown tri-fold in Maine over the last three decades, even as the state’s population center continued to migrate south like a limbo stick, this was the best location, best atmosphere and best case-scenario for its penultimate party.

St. Dom’s-Lewiston, preceded by Biddeford-Thornton. Winners (Lewiston, 4-1, and Thornton, 4-3) get to come back and do it all over again Saturday with a larger trophy and numbers on a banner at stake.

Does it get any better than that? Might I humbly suggest, no?

Two years ago, needing to level the waters in the new-look whirlpool that was Class A hockey, the Maine Principals’ Association switched St. Dom’s from Western Maine to Eastern Maine.

Yes, I know. Gracelawn Road in Auburn qualifies as neither East nor West. I also realize that Maine is a North/South state without an East/West interstate highway.

Cut them some slack; they’re principals, not geographers. Now stay with me.

Doing this dissolved the possibility that any combination of Lewiston, St. Dom’s and Waterville ever could meet in a state championship game.

That caused heartburn among rank traditionalists on both sides of the glass, many of whom couldn’t help but notice that those three schools had won 64 of the 75 state championships awarded up until that day.

But again, just as ice melts, time marches on. Waterville has been feast-or-famine for the last two decades, and to a lesser degree so have Lewiston and St. Dom’s. The Blue Devils won their most recent state title nine years ago. It’s been 11 years for the Saints.

Real odds of Lewiston and St. Dom’s playing in opposite divisions and actually meeting for a state championship: Based on the history in these players’ lifetimes, I’d say 20-to-1.

As new roommates in the postseason duplex, the halos and the pitchforks have collided twice in as many opportunities.

St. Dom’s, seeded fourth a year ago, stormed into the semifinals and stunned No. 1 Lewiston. The Devils returned the favor Tuesday night, scoring in the first minute, adding two more goals midway through the second period and skating away with the regional hardware.

Eastern Maine’s current road map shows Lewiston, St. Dom’s and Waterville surrounded by Bangor, Brunswick, Messalonskee, Cony, Edward Little, Skowhegan and a handful of teams with hyphens in their names.

The track record shows that one of those divisional foes outside the time-honored trio, two at most, proves capable of competing at a Tier I level any given winter.

Under those circumstances, until they switch it up again on us in a year or two, it’s frankly hard for Lewiston and St. Dom’s NOT to find each other in the playoffs.

With so many schools at different levels of the hockey life cycle and boasting divergent traditions, the two-division, two-class system probably isn’t an ideal model. But it’s the best one we’ve got.

Keeping the Twin Cities powers and Waterville in the same cluster does wonders for emphasizing old-time, natural rivalries.

Having the potential of a Biddeford-Thornton or Cheverus-Falmouth final on the Western side of the coin keeps those same border battles in focus while culling a true regional champion from high school hockey’s nouveau riche.

It’s a little bit like the NFL, where the greatest rivals share the same division and conference and beat up one another before one experiences the crossroads clash with a less familiar face in the Super Bowl.

Just as the Steelers-Ravens series is special because you can be sure it’ll happen twice every autumn and probably in January, too, having the Devils and Saints on a collision course is a boon to local, regional and statewide hockey.

Judging from the turnout, the bipartisan roar, the painted faces and the frenetic pace all rolled into Tuesday’s titanic tilt, it has been the equivalent of an oil change or a blood transfusion to a rivalry that already harbored oodles of oomph.

They came. They played. One lamented. One celebrated.

All of us left hoping we’ll see it again. And again. And again.

Kalle Oakes is a staff columnist. His email is koakes@sunjournal.com.