All-Region Girls Hockey Player of the Year: Lewiston’s Leah Landry

Lewiston’s Leah Landry and St. Dominic’s Lucy Frenette battle for control of the puck during a February game at Auburn’s Norway Savings Bank Arena. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

Leah Landry averaged more than two points a game this season, tallying 16 goals and 11 assists in 12 games for Lewiston.

Blue Devils coach Ron Dumont said that Landry was a scoring threat when she joined the team as a freshman, and since then she has continually worked to become even more prolific.

“She gets better every game,” Dumont said. “She’s a kid that can score in so many ways: she can score off the rush, she’s real nifty, she can work the corners, which she does a lot to get the pucks to her teammates, and she can play on the power play. … She’s very versatile. She can play on the penalty kill, she’s a threat there as well. You give her open ice, she’s can be very dangerous. Even when we are short-handed, we aren’t very worried if we can get her on the ice and puck possession.”

Landry’s scoring prowess has helped the junior forward be selected to the All-State first team two years in a row as well as this year’s Sun Journal All-Region Girls Hockey Player of the Year.

Landy credits her linemates, Leah Dube and Bailee St. Hilaire, for her individual success this season. She and Dube have developed an especially strong connection on the ice.

“Leah Dube was great, she had some great assists this year to me,” Landry said. “This was our second year playing together. She knew where I was going to be. She made it very easy for me to score, and the other way around, we had a lot of assists to each other because we have been playing with each other for a little while now.”

Landry said she focused on improving her shooting accuracy heading into this season. That played a part in this season’s scoring output, though she still wants to get better at shooting.

She also is learning to have a shoot-first mentality.

Lewiston’s Leah Landry, right, and Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland’s Eve Martineau battle for control of the puck during a February game in Lewiston. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

“If I see the opening, I will take the chance, hoping that it would go in,” Landry said. “I have confidence behind my shot. If I have the open shot, I will take it. That’s a good thing for me, because sometimes you don’t necessarily think you are going to score, but if you take the shot, you never know.”

Dumont said that in addition to her skills on the ice, Landry also has a high hockey IQ. When the two have conversations on the bench — for instance, Landry will offer input when something doesn’t go as planned — Dumont said that he doesn’t feel like he’s “coaching” her.

Landry said her hockey IQ comes from experience.

“I have been playing for a long time. The longer you play, the easier it becomes to realize things and see the openings. (That) has a lot to do with it,” she said. “The coaching that I have gotten throughout the years has also really helped me see things that I might have not noticed (when I was younger).”

Landry also uses to her size — she’s 5-foot-8 — and reach to her advantage. But she can still blend into the play, despite her height, and patiently wait for a chance to pounce.

“She’s a tall girl, she’s a presence on the ice,” Dumont said. “She kind of makes herself kind of disappear, where she’s not really in the play and then she just pops up. That long stick of hers poke-checks or something, and off she goes, we are off to the races and all of a sudden we are on the offense.”