By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Depth is starting to matter in a good way for the Lewiston Blue Devils, who rolled three lines consistently Monday afternoon in a methodical 6-2 win over a short-benched Portland Bulldog team on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the Colisee.

“From defense to offense to forechecking, all the things we needed to do well, we did,” said Lewiston coach Norm Gagne.

Travis Lebrun banged home a rebound at 12:22 of the third period to cap a hat trick with one assist, and Jonathan Roy finished with three assists of his own to lead the Blue Devils’ offense. Jordan Bourgoin, Matt Letourneau and Kevin LeBlanc also scored for Lewiston, while Brian Nason made 10 saves on 12 shots to earn the win.

“We made a little change to our white line, moving (Danny) Cloutier up on that line, and I think our forwards did an outstanding job with finally starting to convert on our scoring touch,” said Gagne. “I don’t think there’s been a game this year where we’ve scored six goals. We finally started getting good quality shots from the point, too.”

For the Bulldogs, a short bench perpetuated by a bout of injuries left the team with just 13 skaters and one goaltender Monday. By the end of the game, the two-plus lines were worn down.

“Eventually that will catch up to you,” said Evans. “Ray (Quatrucci, Portland’s goaltender) has to be at the top of his game when we start getting tired like that, but the guys that came today, they battled hard, and that’s all you can ask.”

Bourgoin started things off in the first for Lewiston, which didn’t get its first shot on goal until the game was more than eight minutes old. Bourgoin took a rebound off a Brandon Girardin shot at the left post to put the Blue Devils ahead 1-0.

Letourneau scored 1:32 later when his pass across the crease for Casey Poussard deflected in off of a Portland defender’s stick. Lebrun tallied his first of three at 6:37 of the second period when he went wide on the Portland defense, cut back to the middle and deked Portland netminder Ray Quatrucci to the ice before backhanding the puck into the net.

“That was a perfect pass from (Roy),” said Lebrun. “Coach had told me in the break to use my speed around the outside, and it worked.”

Portland chiseled away at the Blue Devil lead with goals at 8:04 by Greg Leborgne and at 10:56 by Craig DeFillip, but in the third, Lewiston turned up the heat – and the speed – early.

Lebrun spun around off a check in front and tried to feed the puck to Bourgoin cutting to the far post. Instead, the puck stayed on his stick a bit longer and beat a Quatrucci five-hole just 51 seconds into the final frame.

LeBlanc’s slap shot from the left point at 9:12 of the third deflected past Quatrucci off of Portland defenseman Shaun Collins’ wrist to put Lewiston ahead 5-2, and Lebrun finished the hat trick 3:10 later.

Lewiston will face Cheverus for the second time in a week Wednesday night and will take on St. Dom’s on Saturday.