LEWISTON — Given St. Dom’s penchant for scoring goals — lots of them, and in a hurry — the last thing Lewiston wanted to do Saturday was sit on a two-goal lead going into the third period.

Coach Jamie Belleau made sure that message was clear, and Colt Steele proved he was paying attention.

Steele fired a shot into the crease from the right side that hit St. Dom’s goalie Austin Christopher’s outstretched right pad. The puck bounced off the pad, off a Saints’ defender and across the line just 31 seconds into the third period, extending the Lewiston lead to three and ultimately contributing to a 4-1 win over the Saints in the teams’ second regular-season meeting of the season.

“I was coming down the boards, I saw someone back door and I just tried to throw it over there,” Steele said. “Somehow, I threw my stick back out there, and it went in off a skate. It was more luck there than anything.”

“We know they’re a team, they work hard, and they’re strength is their offense,” Belleau said. “At any given time, they’re a team that can sneak up on you and score two on you. We were pretty happy to get the third goal, because usually, with three goals, we’re pretty solid with Cam (Poussard) back there.”

Steele’s good fortune helped the Blue Devils (6-0-1) sweep the regular-season series against St. Dom’s for the second consecutive season.

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“I don’t even count the wins last season, because we blew it in the playoffs,” Poussard, Lewiston’s goalie, said.

Poussard stopped 24 of the 25 shots he saw Saturday in the victory.

“You can say we’re two up on the rivalry in games this year, but when it comes to playoff time, we know we’re going to have to go through them again, and that’s when it’s going to count,” said Poussard

The Saints, meanwhile, can take solace in the fact that, while they score one less goal than in the teams’ previous meeting, they also allowed, essentially, two fewer, given that Lewiston’s final goal was a half-ice heave into an empty net by Devon Beland.

“I thought we skated much better, and we had chances,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “We probably should have had more shots, but we had plenty of chances to make something happen. I thought it was a good effort.”

St. Dom’s (6-2) has lost only to Lewiston this season.

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After a scoreless first period during which neither team capitalized on a pair of penalties apiece, the Devils hit the score sheet first in the second.

Ben Wigant slipped behind the Saints’ defense after both blueliners pinched toward Sam Cloutier on a 2-on-2 rush. Cloutier flipped the puck to Wigant, who kept the puck on his backhand, leaned in on the recovering defenseman and flipped it through Christopher to put the Blue Devils on top, 1-0.

Both goalies got into the act later in the second. Christopher robbed Desmond Gagne with a flash of the leather just shy of the nine-minute mark, and Poussard matched him a minute later when he snagged an Alex Parker offering labeled for the top right corner of the cage.

Wigant traded places later in the second, lifting a pass from the right corner across the top of the crease as Steele slid across. Steele flipped a backhander into the cage behind Christopher to double Lewiston’s lead.

Kyle Lemelin nearly put his team up by three, but hit the post on a partial breakaway with less than two minutes to play in the second, and Christopher made another huge save, this one with his right pad as he pushed right to left against a Lewiston 3-on-1, to send the teams into the break with the Blue Devils on top, 2-0.

After Steele’s second made it 3-0 Lewiston, Alex Parker capped a flurry of activity near Poussard’s crease with a goal to pull the Saints within two at 3-1. With the goalie pulled, St. Dom’s continued to fire shots toward the net. many were blocked in front, and Poussard held his ground on the few that got through until Beland ended it from the red line at 14:45 of the final frame.


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