LEWISTON — A goal on the second shift of the game got Lewiston going, but it wasn’t until the second period that the Blue Devils began to exert their dominance against cross-bridge rival Edward Little in boys hockey on Wednesday.

The shots picked up, the scoring continued and Lewiston stayed undefeated with a 5-0 Class A victory at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“We talk about shift by shift trying to get better. You know, the first period, we kind of got lucky being up two, and then we played better second period, which I was pleased with,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “I thought we didn’t work as hard as we traditionally do, but we found a way to win. So that’s  good.”

Junior forward Michael Belleau connected with freshman linemate Brock Bergeron for a goal just 1:16 into the game. That was the first shot on goal for the Blue Devils (5-0), who scored again late in the period on just their fourth shot on goal. Kurtis Pelletier scored from Ryan Pomerleau on a mini breakaway for that goal.

“I liked the second shift of the game, when we made a nice play and we scored,” Jamie Belleau said. “That kind of built some momentum, but we didn’t shoot the puck enough (in the first period), and that’s not like us.”

The Red Eddies (1-5) matched that first-period total of four on-target shots, but none found their way in. It might have been in part because EL couldn’t match its rival’s intensity, according to head coach Norm Gagne.

“I didn’t like the way we started,” Gagne said. “Lewiston’s probably the best team in the state, and they came out hungry. And that’s the way I want us to compete. You know, we might not have all the talent in the world, but we certainly can work hard, and we didn’t even do that. We had spurts of it, but we didn’t consistently keep it up. And when you’re playing a team like this you got to bring your A-game, and we didn’t bring our A-game tonight.”

Gagne tried changing things up to start the second by replacing senior starting goalie Gavin Toussaint with freshman Gage Ducharme, and while Ducharme held his own he couldn’t turn around EL’s fortunes.

Freshman Daxton St. Hilaire scored from Evan Knowlton and Mason Beaudoin 2:40 into the period for Lewiston, then senior brother Drew St. Hilaire scored an unassisted goal less than two minutes later.

“We responded better in the second. I thought we were a little better in the second,” Belleau said.

For his part, Ducharme stopped 12 of the Blue Devils’ 14 shots in the middle frame.

“I needed to see him against a real quality team like this, and I thought he moved really well,” Gagne said. “And we got running around in some of those situations where he was making one stop after another, and his athleticism was just outstanding.”

Pomerleau capped off the scoring early in the third period, putting home his own rebound with assists from Pelletier and Ben St. Laurent.

“The third, we scored that fifth and we kind of were rolling lines,” Belleau said. “(We) just wanted to get through and finish it off strong and get ready for Saturday (against undefeated Thornton Academy).”

Ducharme finished with 21 saves and Toussaint made a pair, while Lewiston’s Keegan McLaughlin stopped all 13 shots for his second straight shutout.

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