The Blue Devils completed an unbeaten regular season with a 7-2 victory over St. Dominic Academy at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on senior night. The senior class, consisting of six skaters, contributing three goals, three assists and five saves in the victory.
“They’re an outstanding group,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said of his senior class. “They’re a great bunch of kids. They’re one of the bigger classes we’ve ever had coming in and all these kids were hockey players coming in. They had a lot of experience. They’ve just been great and then we picked up Shania Haggan along the way. They’re just great character kids. I’m gonna miss them.”
It was a junior who gave the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead with 9:59 left in the first period. Corinne Laberge went bar down with a slap shot from the left circle for her first of two goals on the night.
The Saints (7-11) answered as Alexa Kesaris buried the equalizer four minutes later with a shot through traffic that snuck past Lewiston senior goaltender Paige Fontaine.
“Knowing Lewiston was a strong team, we wanted to get a strong effort out of the girls and I think we got it,” St. Dom’s coach Paul Gosselin said. “We don’t have a big bench, so about seven girls played and I thought they kept up very well. We’re trying to pick the pace up because we know teams are going to pick it up next week.”
It was all Blue Devils (17-0-1) from there as they scored five unanswered goals. It took Lewiston just 23 seconds to answer the Saints’ lone marker. Senior Erica Lemieux put the Blue Devils in front for good and Laberge netted her second with a shot from the same spot as her first to make it 3-1 at the end of the first period.
“We knew they weren’t going to give it to us easy,” Lewiston senior Mikaela Brown said. “We knew we had to work. We had to work hard through it all.”
DeBlois tallied her 20th goal of the season in the first minute of the second period with a shot from center ice that tucked in over St. Dom’s goaltender Peyton Winslow’s glove-side shoulder.
It was a series of firsts on Lewiston’s final goal of the second period. Avery Gagnon netted her first goal of the season with a shot from the slot. Haggan recorded her first point of the year, setting up Gagnon with the primary assist.
“In Shania’s case, she’s a senior and she knew coming in — and I talked to her coming in two years ago — that the clock was ticking,” Dumont said. “We certainly enjoy having her and she’s worked hard, but Avery’s the future. Those are the type of kids we’re going to have in the lineup in a full-time role.”
The third period was all about the seniors as the Blue Devils were actively looking to set them up in front of the net. Erin Hubbard and Makaela Field each tallied goals in the third period to close out the regular season.
“Everyone was trying to get all the seniors goals, so I was just trying to stay open,” Field said. “They were all trying to pass it to seniors.”
Kesaris netted her second goal in between Lewiston’s third-period goals. Kesaris scored all three of the Saints’ goals this season against the Blue Devils.
Fontaine made five saves before being substituted for Meagan Gosselin in the second period. Gosselin finished with five saves as well.
Winslow faced 36 shots, stopping 29.
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