With all apologies to those who follow hockey in Bangor, Waterville, Biddeford, Saco, South Portland and Falmouth, there is one Class A hockey matchup that trumps all others in terms of history, intensity and hype.

But when Lewiston and St. Dom’s lock horns for a third time this season at 2 p.m. on Saturday, not a single player on the ice will be old enough to remember the two schools facing each other in a meaningful playoff game.

“This is more like it used to be back when the two schools were in the same division,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “It adds an intensity to the rivalry.”

Given the current makeup of the two squads, the rivalry is going to keep its intensity for a while. Just two Lewiston skaters and only five Saints are seniors this season, yet both will skate Saturday with a legitimate chance to appear in the Eastern Class A final, and in the state title game.

“Both of these teams are pretty young overall,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “We have two freshmen playing regular shifts and another out there quite a bit. If you look at our top six scorers, none of them are seniors.”

Lewiston isn’t much different. Only one of the Blue Devils’ forwards is a senior — Joey Fournier.

“A lot of these kids played as sophomores and some even as freshmen,” Belleau said. “We had something to build on, and with the growing pains a lot of these kids went through last year, it’s certainly helped us out this year.”

Both the Devils and Saints played tough schedules this season. While Lewiston skated to a 15-2-1 record, just two of its 18 games were against team that didn’t make the playoffs, and in 13 games, the Blue Devils skated against a team that finished in the top four of their respective regions.

St. Dom’s played a similar schedule, also playing 13 games against top-four teams.

“We had a goal to begin the year to finish in the top four in the East,” Ouellette said. “We were basically one tie away from finishing second instead of fourth. With the schedule the way it was, we knew to expect a certain amount of losses, especially earlier in the season.”

Both teams took the first part of the season to feel things out, especially with the younger-than-normal lineups.

“A lot of the kids in this junior class got a sniff of the varsity level as freshmen when the team went to states against Biddeford,” Belleau said. “As sophomores last year, with seven or eight seniors, there wasn’t much room for them to show off their leadership skills, but this year, where we have just two seniors, that junior class is demonstrating strong leadership abilities and a growing maturity. That’s really paying off at this point in the season.”

Given the young nature of the teams, both coaches stressed defense. The Saints rotated a pair of experienced senior forwards — Travar Haefele and Cam Brown — back to the blue line to keep the position steady. Lewiston worked all summer on developing strong-skating defenders and forwards who have an eye for the defensive.

“It’s no secret our strength and our focus this year has been solid team defense,” Belleau said. “With a strong goalie and some good skaters, we had to play to our strengths. That also played a part in getting a lot of the younger kids into the game.”

“We’re not having to score four or five goals in a game this year,” Ouellette said. “This year, we’re not giving up three and four goals per game. A lot of that is the younger players starting to get stronger and more mature as we’ve played through this second half of the season.”

The unfortunate part of Saturday’s matchup for area hockey fans is that one of the teams’ seasons will be done by dinnertime Saturday. The fortunate part is that this is likely just a preview of what’s to come, next year and beyond.

“(Lewiston’s) junior class is huge for them, and they’ve probably had a bit more experience overall than we have,” Ouellette said, “but it’s clear that going forward, both teams are in good shape.”

“(St. Dom’s) is going to be strong for many years to come, too,” Belleau said. “They’re similar in that way, but aren’t they always?”