The Lewiston Area Youth Hockey midgets are one win away from a national title.

Lewiston advanced to Sunday’s Tier II final at the U18 nationals with two victories on Saturday, 9-1 over Nashville in the quarterfinals and 5-1 over Oklahoma in the semifinals.

The team consists of players from Lewiston, St. Dom’s and Messalonskee high schools and Hebron Academy.

The unbeaten Delaware Ducks await Lewiston in the finals, which will be played at 9 a.m.

“It’s a different feeling than going through the playoffs in high school,” said St. Dom’s senior Alex Parker. “There’s really nothing quite like this.”

Lewiston has dominated its opponents, outscoring them, 45-10, in five games. On Saturday, they outshot Nashville, 64-13, and Oklahoma, 39-18.

“Honestly, the teams are not that bad. But our team is just playing so well. They’re literally peaking,” coach Bob Parker said. “I’ve seen this team struggle during the regular season, and now they’re just peaking together. I think their minds are made up that they want to win the national championship for their division.”

In the quarterfinal, Lewiston found itself trailing 1-0 early. Led by Alex Parker (two goals, one assist), it responded with two goals by the end of the first period and nine unanswered goals overall.

“(Being down 1-0) was definitely a wake-up call for us,” said Parker, a Travis Roy finalist. “This team is not going to back down from being down in the game. We’ve dealt with adversity before.”

Ryan Lemelin, Sam Cloutier, Shane Hearn (three assists), Ben Wigant and Nathan Bergeron also scored for Lewiston.

Lewiston never trailed in the semifinal, extending a 1-0 lead after one by attacking a worn down Oklahoma squad for a 4-1 advantage at the second intermission.

“It was both teams’ second game of the day. They run about eight guys out there and occasionally throw some other guys out there, and I thought they really ran out of gas in the middle of the game,” Bob Parker said. “They got frustrated and started taking some penalties and we just capitalized on puck control and our depth.”

“We’re one of the few teams from the northern area here and the north is really known for their skating, so they can’t really keep up with us,” said Hearn, a Hebron Academy product. “We get the first step to a loose puck or a battle and stay stronger on our skates. It doesn’t matter how big they are, they can’t skate with us.”

Cloutier led the offense with his ninth and 10th goals of the tournament. Hearn, Spencer Martin and Alex Doumeng also lit the lamp. Parker tallied three assists, Bergeron two.

“The chemistry on the team between the players is great,” said Doumeng, also from Hebron. “We’ve all come from teams that have won championships and we just know how to play hockey well. When a bunch of kids know how to play hockey, it’s easy to pick up on each other.”

Messalonskee’s Nate Delgiudice pulled double duty in net, saving 29 of 31 shots in the two games.

“They jumped on us early (in the first game), but I held it down until we got our feet under us. I made the saves I had to and they played real well in front of me,” he said.

The finals will be streamed on the Internet and can be viewed, for a fee, at http://usahockey.fasthockey.com/login.php.

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