LEWISTON – What started as a blowout turned into a close call for Lewiston High School on Wednesday night.

Joe Gauthier scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the final minute of the first period and the Blue Devils survived a two-period Brewer onslaught and several untimely penalties to pull out a 3-2 win over the Witches at the Colisee.

“We came flying out in the first period,” said Lewiston coach Tim Smith. “We were playing to our potential after playing that way (Tuesday) night and for one period on Monday. We knew that Brewer had a good team, but I think if we capitalize on some of the breakaways we had, things might have been a bit different.”

Lewiston is now the lone Eastern Class A team without a loss at 5-0, while the Witches drop to 3-1 on the season.

“We looked up there and counted a whole bunch of state championships and we came out a bit intimidated,” said Brewer coach Steve Van Dolman. “It’s a lot like teams going up to Alfond and playing the University of Maine, and I think until we got settled in, they walked all over us.”

After the opening period, though, Brewer quickly evened the offensive chances and started to claw back on the scoreboard, too.

“I run four lines and we try to keep everybody fresh,” said Van Dolman. “I figured with us running four lines and with Lewiston already playing two games this week, that we’d have a chance, and if we kept it close we would be there at the end.”

If not for Lewiston netminder Nick Langlais and a fortuitous high-stick, the Blue Devils would in fact have been on the losing end Wednesday.

“Langlais kept us in there,” said Smith. “If we had just an adequate goaltender, we lose some of these games. We’re lucky to have superb goaltending.”

Early in the third with Brewer trailing 3-1, two different players had point blank shot on Langlais, and he turned the both aside.

“I knew the passes were coming across, the way the play was set up,” said Langlais. “I just anticipated them coming over.”

At 4:29 of the final frame, a shot by Brewer center Zack Wilson appeared to be heading over Langlais’ head and into the net until a teammate knocked it out of the air with a high stick, nullifying the goal.

Lewiston got things going early when Gauthier won a faceoff to himself, fired a backhander in on Brewer netminder Aaron Saunders and picked up his own rebound at 5:03.

Danny Cloutier followed at 12:35 with a tip-in on a Kyle Beaulieu blast from the right point on the power play, and Gauthier scored his second at 14:14 to give the Blue Devils a 3-0 cushion.

Wilson scored an unassisted goal at 13:31 of the second frame to pull the Witches within two at 3-1, and Matt Grimes had a slap shot ricochet off of two players and into the net at 12:08 of the third to bring Brewer within one.

The teams combined for eight penalties in the final period, and 5-on-5 play was rare. Each team capitalized once with an extra attacker, while Brewer held the edge in total power plays, 7-6.