LEWISTON — Lewiston freshman Allison Frechette has two gears: ‘park’ and ‘drive.’
Sitting on the bench and cheering on her teammates, that’s when the speedy forward gets her rest and plots her next shift.
On the ice? Nothing but drive.
Frechette added two more goals to her impressive early-season total Wednesday to help lead the Lewiston girls’ ice hockey team to a 5-1 win over Falmouth at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“She’s like a little Energizer Bunny,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said. “She’s that way in practice, too, she’s the first one out there, she’s always got energy. Obviously she;s still young, and hopefully this stays with her all the way through. She’s a good kid, works hard.”
The Blue Devils (8-2-0) vaulted — at least for now — into second position in the East after winning for the third time in three tries since a two-game skid in December.
Lewiston’s stretch of solid opponents continues Thursday with a matchup against Yarmouth/Freeport (8-1) in a makeup game originally slated for this past Monday.
On Wednesday, it was a stout defensive effort and a speedy offense that helped the Devils catch the Yachtsmen off guard and put them back on their heels.
“It was a good start again for us,” Dumont said. “We needed that again, it’s something we need to do consistently.”
Erica Lemieux put the home team in front on Lewiston’s second shot of the game at 3:31 of the opening frame, tapping home a perfect feed from Mikaela Brown on a 2-on-1 generated during a power play.
The Devils’ very next shot, a one-timer from the low left slot off the stick of Frechette made the score 2-0 at 6:53, and Brown scored her own with a long-range writer from the right side at 9:55 to push the lead to 3-0.
“We hadn’t really faced a team like that that has that one-two punch of speed and skill,” Falmouth coach Rob Carrier said, “so it took us probably about the first 12 minutes of the first period to really get a grasp of what Lewiston was doing.
“Their breakout passes, we weren’t clogging up the middle like we should have been doing,” Carrier added. “They were able to get that second breakout pass to the middle going up the ice. That’s what we really wanted to focus on, to slow them down as much as we can.”
Corinne Laberge capped the Lewiston first-period barrage with a backhand deke to Falmouth keeper Ally Hurdman’s 5-hole with a string move to the front from the left wall at 14:14 of the first.
The Yachtsmen (5-4) used the timeout between periods to their advantage. Falmouth was much stringer in the second period, turning the shot clock to its favor and putting some pressure on Lewiston goalie Paige Fontaine, who stopped all 13 shots she saw in that period to keep the score 4-0.
“She was getting a lot more zone time (against) than we usually have,” Dumont said. “And she was actually getting shots and rebounds kicked out, and she had to be sharp, and she was right on.”
Lewiston also began experimenting with line combinations.
“We’re trying to get everybody in, get them a look, anyway,” Dumont said. “As far as the starters go, I was real proud of the way they played. You don’t ever want to leave anything out there, but we knew we needed to conserve some energy, as well, with another game (Thursday).”
In the third, Falmouth put the first 11 shots of the period on goal, finally getting one past Fontaine at 9:09 when Devon Sarazin slid the puck in on a rebound that kicked to the middle after an odd-angle shot from Evie Clement.
Frechette created a turnover at center and went in alone on Hurdman in the game’s final minute, beating the Falmouth keeper with the Devils’ only shot on goal of the period.
Falmouth also plays Thursday, taking on Cape Elizabeth/Waynflete on home ice.
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