LEWISTON — Here we go again.

For the third time in three seasons since the Maine Principals’ Association realigned divisions and placed St. Dom’s and Lewiston in the East region, the longtime rivals will meet in the playoffs. And for the second consecutive year, the winner will advance to the Class A state final.

“We’ve almost learned to expect it now that we’ve been in the region together for a while,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said.

Neither team is a stranger to the regional final stage. Since 1996, Lewiston has made 12 trips to the regional final (or state semifinal, as it was known prior to 2001). The Blue Devils are 8-4. St. Dom’s has been there 13 times, and is 4-9.

Tuesday’s matchup, the second of two regional finals at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, will mark the sixth meeting between the two rivals in two seasons. Lewiston swept the season series a year ago. This year, the teams split their first two encounters.

“You can throw the 4-1 record out the door,” Belleau said. “That’s not even something we’re going to discuss. It’s Lewiston-St. Dom’s, we were 13-4-1, they were 12-6, we split during the regular season. It doesn’t get any better than this. You almost hate to see one of the teams lose, but that’s the way it is.”

“Obviously, coming off of last year, it was good for us to get that first one this year,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “That was big.”

Neither squad has any players in the top 10 in Class A scoring. Neither have close to a perfect record. And for both teams, that’s quite all right.

“The reality is this: Both teams have had some of the toughest schedules in the state,” Belleau said. “We really haven’t had an easy game.”

Until, one might argue, the first two rounds of the playoffs. Lewiston opened with Skowhegan and Cony, two teams that played different schedules. Lewiston defeated them by a combined score of 17-0 and allowed fewer than 20 shots on goal.

“What I can take out of the Cony game, the Skowhegan game was that we played in a playoff environment,” Belleau said. “We were playing teams that deserved to make the playoffs that historically might given us a hard time about putting the puck in the net, and we moved the puck as well as we did all year, and the numbers showed it.”

“We look at that more as a confidence-booster,” Lewiston captain Desmond Gagne said. “We put a lot of goals in the net. It helps bring up the morale of the team. We hadn’t scored a lot of goals all year.”

The Saints, meanwhile, drew in-town rival Edward Little and a feisty Bangor team that took them to overtime.

“We’ve had games for us like that all year,” Ouellette said. “We keep our schedule a certain way for a certain reason. It isn’t about so much trying to get to 16 wins a year, it’s about preparing for the game we’re going to play in (Tuesday).”

Changes over the years in the way youth organizations are distributed have brought more of the players together at a younger age, before any of them choose one school over the other. That’s led to some friendships off the ice between players from both sides of the rivalry.

But not so much on the ice.

“It’s still a Lewiston-St. Dom’s rivalry.” Lewiston defenseman Brandon Tiner said. “You know them, off the ice they’re friends, but once you put that jersey on, you don’t know them. You go out there, if they have the puck, you hit them. He could be your best friend, you go see him after the game, but when you put that jersey on, it’s game time.”

“Some of the guys you talk to, but some of the guys you don’t really hang out with to begin with, once it’s hockey season. Once you’re on the ice, it’s anyone’s game,” St. Dom’s forward Cody Rodrigue agreed. “There really are no friends on the ice.”

The battle Tuesday is expected to be won in the center and defensive zones, with the teams professing mutual admiration for the work the other has done on the blue line this season.

“Our defense has been strong all year; we’ve been sticking together,” Tiner said. “Our goalies have been strong. It’s not just been the defense. The offense, they’ve been stopping them before they get to the blue line. If they get through that, the ‘D’ has been there, and then the goalies, too. It’s been a whole team effort for defense.”

“It’s definitely going to be a defensive game,” St. Dom’s captain Spencer Martin said. “That’s how you win games. You have to play a defensive game first, you have to back up your goalie. I think we have two solid goalies, and I believe in our defensemen, as well. As forwards, we have a job to do, to help out our ‘D.'”

Despite graduating 14 from last year’s squad, the Blue Devils again have 10 seniors lacing up the skates. St. Dom’s has nine. Lewiston won nine games against three losses at the Colisee. The Saints are 8-4. They each won the other’s “home” game at the rink this season, and both have extensive history in the regional and state finals.

“When you get down to it, when you put on the black and white, or the blue jersey, at the end of the day, you’re battling for the same prize and what goes along with it,” Ouellette said. “You have two programs with 20-plus championships each. It means a lot.”

“You’d like to think of Lewiston-St. Dom’s games as being a dogfight every time,” Belleau said. “I think this is about as stereotypical from an analytical standpoint as you get. This is going to be a dogfight.”