The Blue Devils (5-2-1), who normally have just four defenders, were missing both Bree Bergeron and Jaylin Cloutier. To make up for the losses, Blue Devils head coach Ron Dumont moved senior captain Corinne Laberge from forward back to the blue line.

“Obviously we can’t play with just two Ds. It’s going to be a long game, so we moved Corinne off center and put her back,” Dumont said. “It’s not where she’s most comfortable, but she’s the captain and she stepped up, and we knew she could do it.”

“I practiced (playing defense) for like two days,” Laberge said, “that’s it.”

A new position didn’t prevent Laberge from tending to her usual responsibilities of providing some offense, as she opened the scoring five minutes into the contest.

The Blue Devils doubled their lead later in the first period, as Laberge’s shot on the power play rebounded right to Chloe Morin, who cleaned up the loose puck at the right post and put it in the back of the net. Freshman defender Katie Lemieux got the secondary assist after feeding Laberge.

While the Blue Devils put two shots into the net, the defense held the Tigers (2-6) to just two total shots against Gosselin in the first period. That total shrunk to one in the second, as most Biddeford attempts were swatted away before they reached the Blue Devils netminder.

“I think defensively I was happy with all three of them,” Dumont said of Laberge, Lemieux and sophomore Anna Dodge.

Laberge provided more scoring late in the second, as her shot from the left circle squirted away from Biddeford goalie Bekah Guay, and Laberge found her own rebound for another goal.

“I wasn’t really expecting a rebound, I just followed it,” Laberge said. “It just happened.”

The Blue Devils’ defensive depth was tested to end the second period and start the third, as Dodge went to the penalty box for tripping with 65 seconds left in the middle period. The Blue Devil blue line passed that test, however, holding the Tigers without a shot during the penalty kill.

The Tigers ended the shutout midway through the third, as senior captain Taylor Turgeon took control of a loose puck inside her own blue line, then raced up the left side untouched before beating Gosselin on a breakaway.

“We got caught in transition there, and (Turgeon) made a nice shot,” Dumont said.

Guay stopped 22 of 25 shots in net for the Tigers.

The Blue Devils have two weeks off before playing rival St. Dominic Academy on January 2 at the Colisee.

“That’s going to be a big one,” Dumont said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but hopefully we have everybody back in.”

Note: The Blue Devils’ 2014-15 state championship team was honored between the first and second periods. The year of the title was added to the team’s state championship banner hanging in the rafters of the Colisee, joining the 2009 championship team on the banner.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

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