LEWISTON – Without knowing anything else about the high school hockey season, a quick glance at tonight’s matchup between Lewiston and St. Dom’s would suggest Lewiston holds the better starting hand.

Not so fast.

Lewiston (14-1-1) has been brilliant in Eastern Class A this season. The Blue Devils have scored 95 goals in 16 games in losing just once. They’ve upended No. 2 Brewer, No. 3 Waterville and No. 5 Lawrence, and haven’t played No. 4 Poland Gray/New Gloucester.

Their lone blemishes came against Bangor, a game during which they launched 51 shots at a red-hot Andrew Riley but lost, and a 1-1 tie against Falmouth, one of the top Western Class A teams.

“The scoreboard tells the tale, and we lost that game (against Bangor),” Lewiston coach Norm Gagne said.

A look at the Saints schedule, meanwhile, is enough to make you want to break out the heavy duty artillery and bunker down for the long haul. The Saints (8-8) have endured major battles with each of the top teams in Western Class A: No. 1 Biddeford (twice), No. 2 Kennebunk (twice), No. 3 Falmouth (twice), No. 8 Portland (twice) and No. 9 Deering.

Predictably, St. Dom’s lost both games to each of the top three.

Unpredictably, the Saints gave each of the teams a tough battle, nearly taking Biddeford and Falmouth to overtime.

“We had Biddeford down to the last minute, same thing with Falmouth,” St. Dom’s coach John Pleau said. “But I like the way we’ve progressed. It’s heartbreaking, the eight losses, but we’re hoping to end up 12-8.”

“Five or six of those eight losses could have probably been wins,” Gagne said of the Saints’ record. “With a bounce here or a bounce there, you don’t know. They’re a good team, and we’re not going to look past them.”

The Blue Devils’ schedule has admittedly been a bit easier. Eight of their first nine games of the season were against the teams currently sitting in the 5th through 13th positions in Eastern Class A.

But the Devils remember adversity like it was last year.

It was just last year.

“We found a way to battle back and come through that last year,” Gagne said. “We learned how to lose last year. We were in a lot of games like St. Dom’s has played this year, losing by one goal here and there, losing a couple late or in overtime.”

“Norm did that on purpose, to gain momentum into the end, I think,” Pleau said. “This year, he’s had the momentum. This year, the frustration was at the beginning, this year it’s near the end of the season.”

St. Dom’s heads into tonight’s matchup seventh in Western Class A, with little hope of catching the teams in sixth and fifth, despite a much tougher schedule. But the Saints don’t mind so much.

“Playing a tougher schedule is definitely better going into the playoffs,” Pleau said. “You talk to the other coaches, we’re one of the few teams nobody wants to play going into the playoffs.”

Lewiston, meanwhile, spent the week trying to regain the form that saw it blow away its first seven opponents.

“I thought we were becoming complacent,” Gagne said. “You have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win is the old saying. I think the same is true when you;re winning. You have to learn how to win, and keep that hunger, that drive and that passion in every game.”

There’s nothing like a rivalry to spark a push for the playoffs. For the second time this season, for St. Dom’s and Lewiston, game on.