In the rematch Saturday night, the Blue Devils made sure they scored that elusive third goal, and it paid off in a 4-1 Northern Maine girls’ hockey victory at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The Blue Devils (10-4-1) jumped on the board first, just like in the season’s first matchup. Katie Lemieux scored from the left circle on a power play with less than five minutes left in the first period. The Blue Devils dominated in shots on goal in the first (12-2), yet held just a 1-0 lead after 15 minutes. Some of that had to do with the strong glove work of Red Hornets goalie Sarah Hammond, who used her softball background to make some tough glove saves.

“She’s really good high glove side,” Red Hornets coach Shon Collins said. “She was on top of everything they were throwing out there.”

The Blue Devils came out firing to start the second. Corinne Laberge made it 2-0 just 18 seconds in, looping in from the left corner to beat Hammond with a back-hand shot at the left post. Bree Bergeron scored less than two minutes later with a blast from the left circle.

“Both those were great, great individual efforts,” Blue Devils coach Ron Dumont said. “You’re building a little bit of cushion. When you can get a little cushion like that, it takes a little out of them you would hope.”

The Red Hornets (7-6-3) were able to get some pressure on Blue Devils goalie Meagan Gosselin in the second. Both Saige Arseneault and Madi Simard had solid chances stopped by Gosselin in the first three minutes of the period.

The visitors finally broke through with less than a minute to go in the second. A scrum in front of Gosselin ended when Mariah Vaillancourt pushed the puck past the Blue Devils netminder, giving the Red Hornets some late life — something that sparked them to a tie in the first meeting of the season.

“We had a lot of players grinding and fighting for the puck,” Collins said of Vaillancourt’s goal. “We had a little momentum there.”

“Same kind of story,” Dumont said, comparing the two matchups with the Red Hornets. “We had a discussion between the second and third that those last two minutes of a period are very crucial, and we coughed one up; we got lazy.”

The Red Hornets began firing at will against Gosselin in the third, but the sophomore stopped 11 shots she faced in the final period.

“That was really, really critical,” Dumont said. “As far as I’m concerned she did her job the way she always does — good and steady, and cool as can be.”

“She had visibility of most of the shots,” Collins said of Gosselin. “I preach to the girls about taking away her eyes — screening, tipping, everything else — and we weren’t very successful at it.”

The Blue Devils put the nail in the coffin with just under seven minutes to play when Chloe Morin slid a shot under Hammond.

Though the Red Hornets showed some fight at the end for a second straight time against their rivals, it wasn’t enough — either for a positive result or for Collins’ standards.

“With the playoffs coming, we have to decide who we are,” Collins said. “If we want to try to make a run into the playoffs we need to show up and give more, beginning to end.”

The Red Hornets had a chance of jumping the Blue Devils into third place in the Northern region, but now have to keep an eye on fifth-place Brunswick, which is close behind in the Heal points. The third and fourth seeds host quarterfinals.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com