With one loss and just two ties on its record, the Lewiston High School girls’ hockey team doesn’t know much about what it’s like to trail in a game this season.

Greely put the Blue Devils in that spot back in December, as the Rangers took a 2-1 first-period lead.

It didn’t last long.

“The first time, it was very obvious,” Greely coach Heather Goeghan said. “We held on through the first period and through most of the second, but it became pretty clear we were not as well-conditioned and we couldn’t hold up.”

Lewiston won the game, 5-2, and the Blue Devils won the next one, too, 4-0, on their way to earning the top seed in the Eastern region.

Now the Devils and Rangers will meet for a third time, at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Portland Ice Arena. The winner gets a chance to make history: At stake is a berth in the first MPA-sanctioned girls’ hockey state title game this Saturday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.

“In a one-and-done situation, you have to respect them,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said. “They’re an honest team; they’re coached well. They don’t have just one or two high-profile players, but they work well together, and you have to be careful against a team like that. That can get you in trouble, because they can spread it around.”

The Rangers (13-4-2) have lost just two games other than their two setbacks to Lewiston: an early-season 4-3 loss to rival Cape Elizabeth and a 2-1 loss to Winthrop.

They’ve also played in several one- or two-goal games, something Goeghan believes will help her squad against a tough Lewiston team.

“We’re more of a second- and third-period team,” Goeghan said. “They like to feel out what it’s going to be like, and once we kind of find our groove we’ve done a good job of pulling away. We’ve had some close games where we’ve come out on top, too.”

The Blue Devils and Rangers share more than common defeated opponents in common, too. Both teams pride themselves on spreading the puck around to three lines – and to the defense.

“Everyone’s expected to participate,” Dumont said. “For some of them, it won’t be about scoring goals, but for some of the girls, yeah, we need them to step up and contribute.”

“A lot of the time, I don’t know which line is going to come out and score for us,” Goeghan said. “We have three very even lines, and all three of them play. One of those lines usually comes out and has that little bit of an extra push.”

Lewiston’s speed presented problems for Greely last time around, too.

“They’re strong and they have a number of players who can really skate the puck and move the puck very well,” Goeghan said. “We’ve been working on working together as a defense and on our offense being more defensive-minded. In our last game against them, three of their goals were scored on breakaways. If we can prevent those, hopefully we can prevent some of those goals from happening.”

For Dumont and the Devils, the best defense against a feisty Greely squad may be his offense.

“If you have the puck, they can’t generate offense,” Dumont said. “At 16-1-2, we’re not going to reinvent much. We talk about puck possession and control, and hopefully we can keep it out of their hands.”

The western regional girls’ hockey final between Cheverus and Biddeford will follow the Lewiston/Greely matchup, and the winners will meet Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Colisee in the state championship game.