LEWISTON — You can’t lose a game if your opponent can’t shoot the puck on net.

As simple as it sounds, the concept is much harder to effectively execute for the entirety of a contest.

Lewiston held Greely to a single shot on goal in the first period, three in the second and five in the third, all the while peppering Rangers keeper Emma Seymour with 31 shots and Marisa Zamrock registered a goal at even strength, one on the power play and another shorthanded as the top-seeded Blue Devils skated past Greely 5-0 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Wednesday.

“We get to the point now, in early January, where we want to hold our position,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said. “To do that, you need to play defensively. You have to do the little things right, and when you get to playoff time, you have to be tight there.”

The Blue Devils’ defense, even more than the offense that netted five goals, was their calling card Wednesday. Sarah Turner needed to stop just nine shots, five of which came in the third period as Greely tried desperately to get back into the game.

“Defense wins games,” Dumont said. “We know our offense can hold its own right now, so we start from the back end, and we talk about minimizing the amount of shots we have against us.”

The Rangers, meanwhile, gained the Lewiston zone plenty, they just couldn’t get to the net, despite two different chances with a two-skater advantage, one each in the second and third periods.

“They were doing a nice job of just forcing us wide. They forced a lot of long shots, and when we were able to get a shot on, we didn’t have a second person there to follow,” Greely coach Heather Geoghan said. “They have good positioning, they have a good system and they know how to read plays.”

Zamrock led off the scoring in the first with a rebound goal at the top of the crease. Sara Marden made it 2-0 with a minute to play in the first on a redirect of an Emilie Cloutier feed.

Zamrock netted the next two in the second period, one on a power play rush and the other on an unassisted turn-around shot on a 1-on-2 during a penalty kill. Cloutier followed late in the middle frame on a short side chance with one second left on the clock.

The Rangers held tough in the third, evened things up on the shot clock, and most importantly held Lewiston off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game.

“We got pretty fired up in the third period, came out strong and hungry in the third,” Geoghan said. “We had some good scoring opportunities; we just weren’t able to finish them off.”