LEWISTON – It’s not that Lewiston doesn’t want to score goals.

The Blue Devils began the season – against admittedly weaker competition – by scoring 32 goals in three games.

Since then, the most they’ve scored in one game against a Tier I opponent is five. In their final 10 games of the regular season, the Devils found the back of the net just 23 times.

That’s the not-so-good news.

On the other end, Lewiston allowed only 14, for a 1.40 goals against average.

That’s the good news, and the area on which the Devils will need to focus Tuesday if they hope to advance to a fifth consecutive Class A state championship game.

“It’s the old cliche, but it applies here,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “If you have good defense and a good goaltender, you have a chance to win every game. We have a good goaltender and we have a good defense.”

No. 3 Lewiston (13-6-1) takes on No. 1 Waterville (19-1-0) at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, each hoping to get a crack at the state title game one more time. Lewiston, the four-time defending Eastern champ, is looking for state title No. 21. Waterville is hoping to make it an even 20, and tie Lewiston for second-most all time.

The two teams have faced each other twice this season. Waterville won both meetings by a combined two goals, a 1-0 win in Lewiston on Jan. 21 and a 2-1 victory in Waterville in the team’s final game of the regular season, on Feb. 16.

The Panthers scored all three of their goals on the power play, going a combined 3-for-5 in those two games.

“Waterville has very good special teams,” Belleau said. “They’re good a man down, they’re good on the power play. Our goal is to play 5-on-5, especially against a team like Waterville.”

Lewiston’s calling card this season has been its defense. With a team GAA of 1.45, goaltending has a lot to do with that. Sophomore Cam Poussard (1.69 GAA) has earned a decision in all but two Lewiston games this season, and took his team, as a freshman, to last year’s state final.

“Cam is an all-state goaltender, simple as that,” Belleau said. “Cam, and our defensive system, are going to take us as far as we can go.

But Lewiston has played a defensive system all season, and has been good at it, thanks in large part to incredible depth on the blue line. The coaching staff hasn’t hesitated to use any of the team’s five top defenders in any situation all season, even rotating some of them through the offense on occasion.

“We started two defensemen at forward (Saturday), and rotated them back on defense every other shift,” Belleau said. “We have a deep defensive group. That’s not taking anything away from the forwards, but we believe the defense creates a good offense, or at least our defense will give us a good chance to win a hockey game.”

The Devils’ depth will be on display – for better of for worse – Tuesday, while regular contributor Devin McLellan serves an automatic one-game suspension for throwing a punch late in Saturday’s Eastern Class A semifinal win over Brewer. McLellan played the majority of Saturday’s game at forward.

“We have 20 guys on the team,” Belleau said. “Devin McLellan is one of them. It’s not going to take just one player to win, it’s going to take all 20 we have dressed (Tuesday). Certainly, we wish we weren’t short a player, but that’s the situation and we’ll play accordingly. It doesn’t change how we play, it doesn’t change our system, and it doesn’t change the expectations for the guys we expect to play.”

Waterville will also be short a player – one of the best in the state.

For the second consecutive game, Travis Roy Award semifinalist Shawn Lee will sit due to an injury he suffered in practice last week. The team shifted forward Ian Rowe back and forth between forward and defense Saturday to compensate for Lee’s absence, and will likely do so again Tuesday.

Lewiston’s top priority will be stopping sophomore sensation Eric Aldrich. The sniper had a hand in all four Waterville goals Saturday in the team’s 4-3, come-from-behind win over Bangor, a game in which the Panthers were down 3-0 in the first period.

The Eastern A final, the first game of a doubleheader at the Colisee on Tuesday, is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.