By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Joe Gauthier’s eyes lit up when he saw the puck trickle past a Waterville forward to teammate Tim Roy’s stick.

Even in overtime with the Lewiston Blue Devils on the penalty kill, Gauthier knew he had to make a go at it.

As he streaked through the neutral zone behind Waterville’s defense, Roy swiveled, picked Gauthier out of the corner of his eye and fired a pass up the middle. The pass sprung Gauthier on a breakaway and the speedy Lewiston forward did the rest, burying a backhand move at 4:18 of the extra session to edge Waterville 2-1 in a Class A hockey game at the Colisee.

“That was a solid win for us,” said Lewiston coach Tim Smith. “The team worked hard and kept going even after getting down early.”

The result was different from the previous meeting between the two, a 5-0 win for Lewiston in Waterville.

“I think we caught them off guard a bit in that one,” said Smith. “We all knew that they’d play better tonight, that they’d be a better team, and they were.”

The Purple Panthers were so much better, in fact, that they battled Lewiston to a draw through the first 45 minutes. And then came Roy’s pass to Gauthier.

“It was kind of 50-50,” said Gauthier about whether or not the play was a set play. “We have been running it where the defense will try and get us the puck high if they get it down deep. I saw Timmy get the puck and I just started going.”

“We’ve been running that for a while,” said Roy. “I saw him start going when I first got the puck. I thought at first the pass would be too long, but it ended up right on his tape.”

Despite its domination of Waterville in the first 10 minutes of the game, Lewiston faced a 1-0 deficit after the opening period thanks to a tip-in goal by Jon Hart.

On that play, Lewiston had a chance to clear the zone, but a puck kicked in the direction of the blue line found the stick of defenseman David Labbe, who fired it off the boards and onto the stick of Nick Steward. Steward wheeled and fired a slap shot across the ice toward Lewiston netminder Nick Langlais. Less than four feet from the goal, Hart tipped it past a stretched-out Langlais for the goal.

“That was a working goal,” said Martin. “They outworked the Lewiston defender in front of the net and were able to get the tip.”

Lewiston’s best chance in the opening frame came at the tail end of a 3-on-1, when Adam Wilding clanked the puck off the cross bar on a backhand feed Joe Gauthier.

The middle period started much like the first thanks to two Waterville penalties, nearly back-to-back.

This time, the Blue Devils found the back of the net when Nate Gruz took a breakout pass from Kyle Beaulieu at center ice and glided into the left faceoff circle. A right-hand shot, Gruz’s wrister from a tough angle as he reached the goal line beat Cook high to the glove side – on the opposite post – pulling Lewiston even at 1-1.

“He had that whole corner open,” said Gruz. “That play was a set play from the defense with the wingers curling, and he hit me in the middle. The defense just kept backing up and gave me all the room.”

Lewiston remained in first place in the Heal Point standings this week, but by a slim margin over Bangor. Waterville continues to lurk in the middle of Eastern Class A, and might be a second-round opponent for Lewiston in the playoffs, which start in less than three weeks.