LEWISTON — Nick Mathon could hear his coach from the bench.

“Even with the crowd it was pretty loud, yeah, I could hear it,” Mathon said. “He’d been telling us all game to get rid of the puck a bit faster.”

Mathon listened, and immediately unleashed a wrist shot. It clanked off the left post and rebounded to Jon McDonough, who fired it back at Waterville netminder Ryan Cormier. The rebound bounced to the left side of the crease, right to Ryan Lemelin, who buried the puck into an empty net for the game’s only goal — a power play tally at 7:32 of the third period — as Lewiston bounced back from a lackadaisical loss to Falmouth to earn a 1-0 victory over the Purple Panthers at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Saturday.

“That’s a big win for the program,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “We knew coming in it would be a defensive struggle. It always is with Waterville. People were saying before that they aren’t as deep, but that’s comparing it to a state championship-winning team. They’re obviously still a very good hockey team.”

The Blue Devils fizzled against Falmouth on Wednesday in a 3-0 setback, and hadn’t scored against Waterville since Belleau became the head coach, losing three games last season by a combined score of 7-0 including playoffs.

“We played a lot better than last game, and this will really help boost our confidence,” Mathon said.

On his shot from the point, Mathon wasn’t trying to overpower Cormier from a distance.

“I was just trying to get a low shot to the net, and the guys all crashed the net like they’re supposed to do and it turned out good,” Mathon said.

“It hit the goalie and it tipped off a stick and it came toward me,” Lemelin added. “I should have had it. If I didn’t finish that, that would have been pretty bad.”

Waterville was playing with a short bench, and lost Matt Lee in the second period, which hurt even more. But the offense still couldn’t solve the Lewiston defense and keeper Cam Poussard, who turned aside 19 shots to earn the shutout. Waterville even drew a penalty with 3:25 to play, but couldn’t muster a solid scoring chance. With the goalie pulled, the Panthers forced Poussard to make two difficult saves.

“We had some chances there at the end, we just couldn’t put one in,” Martin said.

The teams skated through the first period with few scoring chances and no penalties to either side. The Devils held a slight edge on the shot chart, but only one of Lewiston’s eight shots and one of Waterville’s six were legitimate scoring threats.

The second period saw both teams get a chance on the power play. Lewiston had a pair two minutes apart, and found some offense during its second opportunity with the extra skater, but Cormier was up to the task. 

The Panthers then drew a penalty and went up a skater to close out the second frame, and drew another near the start of the third, enjoying a 29-second 5-on-3. This time, it was Poussard with a solid save as Waterville was also shut out on its first two power play tries.