LEWISTON — With the excitement of the season opener, there are often the opening-night jitters as well.

The Lewiston girls’ hockey team had some nerves Friday night, but a few quick goals quickly took care of that.

Lewiston scored three goals in the first period and cruised to a solid opening-night 5-0 win over Mt. Ararat at the Colisee.

“Sometime that’s typical,” said Lewiston coach Ron Dumont of the Devils’ apprehension. “We played that round robin, but this is the first real game. You could tell. I talked to the first two lines after they went out. During the season, they’re a lot smoother. It wasn’t happening. I told them we just had to calm down and sort it out.”

Lewiston gots its first shot after five-plus minutes but then quickly scored three straight.

“We’ve been trying hard in practice so that we could come out and do well the first game,” Junior forward Erica Lemieux said. “I think we did really good. We wanted to show what we’ve got.”

Lemieux finished with the hat trick. Corinne Laberge and Mikaela St. Laurent also had goals for the Blue Devils. Allison Frechette, Sam Cote and Erin Hubbard added assists.

Goalie Paige Fontaine made seven stops for the shutout.

“Paige did a great job,” Dumont said. “These can be some of the tougher games because you may not see a lot of shots but you have to be prepared. She did a fine job.”

The first five minutes of play included no shots and just one whistle. The first shot didn’t come until 9:28 remained when Faith Ide had a shot from in front.

Lewiston didn’t miss much with the shots that followed. The Blue Devils scored on three of their next four shots.

Laberge netted the first goal on the second shot of the game. She beat a defender and wristed it home at 7:50.

“That first goal always sparks us and gets the whole team going,” Lemieux said.

Just 39 seconds later, St. Laurent made it 2-0. She took a Frechette pass and buried a shot from in front with 6:41 left in the period.

Then with 1:55 left,  Lemieux made it 3-0. She skated down the left side and fired in a wrister.

“I was looking to pass,” Lemieux said. “We were in the middle of a change. They were too. So I just took it out wide and had one left to get through.”

Lewiston outshot the Eagles 6-2 in the first period.

In the second, Mt. Ararat had some puck possession but either had shots blocked by Lewiston defenders or shot wide. The Blue Devils outshot the Eagles 8-3 in the second.

Mt. Ararat had a power play early in the third. Lewiston controlled the puck for most of the man advantage and the Eagles couldn’t muster a shot on goal.

Lemieux then finished off her hat trick with a pair of goals in a span of 19 seconds. She made it 4-0 with a goal with 6:10 left in the third. That came off a Cote pass. Then soon after the following face-off,  Hubbard fed Lemieux, who broke through the defense for an open rush in the slot.

“It was great that we got to play our third and fourth lines,” Dumont said. “That’s a lot of new kids that haven’t experienced hockey. I rolled all four of them. It was a team effort. I was pleased with all of them. Everybody is at a different place in their hockey career. For each individual, where they’re at, they did a real good job.”

kmills@sunjournal.com