LEWISTON — The seconds were ticking down in what had been tame first period for the Lewiston boys hockey team.

Then Brock Bergeron provided a spark.

The freshman forward gave the top-seeded and undefeated Blue Devils a much-needed momentum boost heading into the first intermission when he scored a tying goal with 0.9 seconds left in the opening period.

By the time Bergeron scored his second goal the Blue Devils had the game firmly in hand, and they skated their way into the Class A boys hockey state championship game with a 5-1 victory over fourth-seeded South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete in a semifinal Tuesday at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“It feels great,” Bergeron said. “One win from the championship.”

Lewiston (20-0) will next face third-seeded Scarborough, which needed three overtimes to beat Edward Little in its semifinal earlier in the night, in the Class A state championship Saturday at the Colisee. The Blue Devils will be playing for their fourth state title in five years, a stretch that started with a win over Scarborough in 2016. Scarborough’s most recent title came the year before.

Bergeron’s last-second first-period goal tied the game at 1-1 after the Blue Devils faced a rare deficit.

“I wasn’t really paying attention to the clock,” Bergeron said. “I was trying to go for a change, and then I turned around and the puck’s right in the middle — turn around and just put it to the net.”

The Red Riots (12-7-1) didn’t score in their first meeting with the Blue Devils (a 2-0 Lewiston win on Jan. 18), but they opened the scoring Tuesday on an unassisted goal by Owen Anderson with 2:40 left in the opening period.

“I just think we came out aggressive. We had some speed,” Red Riots coach Joe Robinson said. “I think we caught them a little off-guard.” 

The Blue Devils outshot the Red Riots 9-7 in the first period but were on the verge of having nothing to show for it until Bergeron scored in the high slot off an assist from Logan Tripp, who recorded three points for the second straight playoff game.

“I mean, it was big,” Bergeron said. “Get us back going into that second period, tied game.” 

“I talk to our kids a lot about playoff hockey is going to be hard, games are never easy, you’re going to face adversity at some point in the game,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “And even though we ended up winning 5-1 there was adversity in the first period.

“What won this game was we responded to adversity well. We worked hard, we didn’t panic and we kept our composure.” 

Tripp scored a shorthanded goal with about five minutes left in the second period off a Michael Belleau assist to make it 3-1. The goal came after the Red Riots survived a five-minute power play that was extended with another penalty and featured 1:06 of 5-on-3 play.

“(Tripp’s goal) was big,” Belleau said. “You got to capitalize on (the long power play); luckily we were able to get by with not doing that.”

Earlier in the period, Kurtis Pelletier scored the go-ahead goal, which was set up by Ryan Pomerleau and Drew St. Hilaire.

Tripp and Belleau assisted on Bergeron’s second goal in the third period that extended Lewiston’s lead to 4-1. 

“We definitely needed to get that next one and didn’t. So that’s where it really kind of takes the wind out of the sails,” Robinson said. 

Freshman Daxton St. Hilaire rounded out the scoring with a little more than a minute left in the game. Mason Beaudoin and Joey Gendron assisted. 

Keegan McLaughlin stopped 12 of 13 shots for the win, while Red Riots goalie Liam McGibbon made 32 saves.

“(Liam) played great. I don’t think the score really is an indication of how well he played,” Robinson said. 

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories