By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Ian Doucette was itching for a good faceoff.

“I hadn’t been winning them all night,” said the Lewiston junior. “I knew I needed a good one.”

Just 45 seconds into the third period, Doucette picked the puck clean on the draw against Waterville’s Jon Hart. The puck bounced off the sideboard to Kevin LeBlanc at the left point, who fired a slapshot through traffic at Waterville netminder Joey Fonollosa.

After making the first save, Fonollosa fell to the ice as Lewiston senior Brandon Girardin swept in and lifted the rebound over him. The goal was the game-winner as the Blue Devils held on to upend the Purple Panthers 5-3 at the Colisee on Tuesday.

“We talked about it between the second and third period that we needed to get the puck deep and win some faceoffs in their end,” said Doucette. “That’s what we did, and we got a goal.”

Waterville had plenty of solid chances in the final frame to tie the score, but Lewiston backstop Brian Nason turned aside all 16 shots he faced in the third period to preserve the lead.

“Brian is our mainstay,” said Gagne. “We know that when we make mistakes that Brian’s there to make the big stops we need. He did it in the game against St. Dom’s, and he did it again tonight. When the pressure is on, Brian loves the pressure and he raises his game.”

“We were all over them in the third period,” said Waterville coach Dennis Martin. “Their goaltender came up and squeezed them all at the end.”

Jon Roy potted an empty-net goal with less than one second left on the clock to finally seal the victory, a big win for Lewiston, which was been looking up to the No. 1-ranked Panthers all season in the standings.

Emotions were high – almost too high – for Gagne, who was facing his old team, a team for which he coached for 18 years, for the first time since leaving two years ago.

“I think I was a little too pumped up,” laughed Gagne. “The kids were laughing, they said, Coach, you’re talking about keeping your composure, and you’re losing it.’ I had to calm myself down, especially in that last minute.”

Both teams benefited as much shorthanded as they did at even strength in the opening period.

Waterville jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to two Lewiston miscues. Zach Jochem got the Panthers’ first one on a long rebound in front on a missed defensive assignment, and Barrett Moore put the visitors ahead 2-0 when Nason and defenseman Zack Blauvelt collided trying to play a puck at the top of the left circle. Moore grabbed the loose puck and slid it into the open net for a short-handed goal.

“It seemed like the kids were over-pumped for the game,” said Gagne. “They came out a little too excited, and I told them to calm down. We needed to get ourselves back in the game.”

Lewiston rebounded when Casey Poussard banged home a rebound on a Matt Letourneau shot from the right circle, and Danny Cloutier finished a great chance by Jordan Bourgoin with the Blue Devils shorthanded to even the score.

“We hadn’t played in 12 days,” said Martin. “They obviously had their game legs and we didn’t.”

Waterville opened the second with momentum, and at 1:23 took the lead back when Joel Allen grabbed a turnover deep in the Lewiston zone and fired the puck five-hole on Nason.

Lewiston rebounded again when Toby Poirier found the top left corner on a blazing slapshot from the left point.

“I knew I had a guy closing in on me,” said Poirier. “I was just trying to get a shot off. I knew it was going at the net, I just didn’t know where.”

Saints dodge Eclipse

Ben Randall and Craig Michaud had a goal and an assist each, and Brady Blackman stopped all but two shots he faced as the Saints defeated the Academie St. Louis Eclipse 5-2 in a high school hockey exhibition game at the Colisee on Tuesday night.

St. Dom’s rolled three full lines all night and got scoring from all three in the win, even with Tyler Martin, the team’s leading scorer and captain, still sidelined with symptoms from a concussion suffered against Lewiston last Saturday.

Michaud put St. Dom’s on the board at 5:17 of the second period when he banged home a feed from Randall to the short side of netminder Alexandre Pouliot while being leveled by a St. Louis defenseman.

Alex Pleau hit Pouliot in the shoulder with the Saints’ next shot on goal, and that, too, found the back of the net after bouncing high in the air and landing behind the beleaguered netminder.

The Eclipse put their first goal past Blackman at 7:33 when Jeremy Rehel fired a wrist shot to the glove side, but the Saints responded just 26 seconds later to go ahead by two once more on a Randall goal.

Frederick Beaule again pulled St. Louis to within one at 9:23 of the third, but Jeff Lewandowski potted an empty-netter with 1:42 to play to clinch the win. Tom Gosselin added a goal as the buzzer sounded off a late, in-zone faceoff to cap the scoring.