Girls hockey: Kylie Dulac powers Lewiston/Oak Hill past Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland

LEWISTON — Lewiston/Oak Hill freshman sensation Kylie Dulac made her presence known by scoring four goals in the Blue Devils’ 5-3 girls hockey win over rival Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland at The Colisee on Friday.

“This was very big, being a rivalry game, and we have been on a bit of a losing streak,” Dulac said. “It rose our hopes to have that win under our belt.”

Lewiston had lost its previous four games before Friday’s contest. Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland, meanwhile, had its four-game winning streak snapped.

Red Hornets coach Dana Berube said he’s familiar with Dulac since she has skated with Edward Little during past summers and played for his nephew, Matt Berube, in the Gladiators youth hockey organization for the past five or six years.

“We knew what kind of player she is,” Berube said. “She has very good hockey sense and she competes every shift. We knew she was going to be up for this game. Four goals, hats off to her.”

The scoring came fast and furious early in the contest. Dulac notched her first goal with a shot from the right circle just 22 seconds into the game.

Lewiston coach Scott Laberge said, however, that the Blue Devils didn’t have a smooth start to the game.

“You could tell, tightening up on the sticks a little bit,” Laberge said. “I thought the opening faceoff — it was a little shaky, a couple of passes that were there that weren’t made. Luckily, Kylie kind of got a little break and got that first one and loosened up things from there.”

Nine seconds into the Red Hornets’ (6-4) first power-play, Grace Ducharme fired the puck through traffic and past Lewiston goalie Tatum Hunt (nine saves), 2:51 into the first.

“She did a good job,” Berube said of Ducharme. “If you are going to be in a rivalry game, you have to maintain your composure — play hard every shift for three periods, and we did not do that enough today.”

The Red Hornets went 1 of 4 on the power play, while the Blue Devils went 0 for 3.

A few minutes after Ducharme’s goal, Lewiston (3-6) scored twice in 14 seconds.

First, Dulac notched her second with a wrap-around goal that just got by Red Hornets goalie Izzy Jalbert (16 saves) at the 4:47 mark of the opening period.

Dulac said she initially didn’t know if the puck crossed the goal line.

“I was very unsure if that went in,” Dulac said. “It was definitely a sigh of relief when it went in.”

Shortly after the ensuing faceoff, Avaya Desjardins found the back of the cage to give Lewiston a 3-1 advantage.

“We got a rookie goaltender, and anytime we can pad the lead a little bit, you can see the bench breathe a sigh of relief to have a little cushion,” Laberge said.

Avery Cologna had a shot hit the crossbar for Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland, but she found redemption about 15 seconds later when she potted a shot to help the Red Hornets close the gap to 3-2 at the 6:55 mark of the first.

Berube said he and his assistant coaches encouraged the Red Hornets throughout the game to aim their shots lower against Hunt.

“We were trying to preach to them, it was a newer goalie — like our goalie — if you put them high in their glove, they are catchers, they are going to come up with those,” Berube said. “I wanted to get pucks lower and make it a little more difficult on them, but we didn’t get the total shots that we needed to.”

Both offenses calmed down for the remainder of the first and into the second period.

The Red Hornets struggled to get pucks to the net in the middle frame, with their attempts either going wide or being blocked by Lewiston players.

The Blue Devils struggled to generate quality shot attempts until late in the period, but they scored the only goal of the stanza. While shorthanded, Desjardins’ slap shot from the point with the clock clicking down created a rebound off of Jalbert’s pads, and Dulac put it home by being a crease-front presence.

The Desjardins-and-Dulac duo nearly connected on a similar play earlier in the period.

“Shortly before that, she was winding up for a shot and saw Kylie on the opposite post with a little slap pass,” Laberge said. “We have been trying for them to do that at practice. That was nice to see — they didn’t score on that one, but it was a smart play and the right play at the time. It was cool. Kylie made the pass out to Avaya, and for Kylie to get rewarded on that play, it was a really nice play.”

The third period played out similar to the second, with scoring chances hard to come by for each team.

There was, however, a mini-scoring barrage late in the period. Olivia Doyon cut the deficit to 4-3 for the Red Hornets. But on the next shift, Dulac notched her fourth of the game to restore a two-goal lead. Both goals came with under three minutes to play.

“It felt great to secure the lead a tad bit more,” Dulac said.

Berube said the Red Hornets’ pushback came a little too late.

“The good thing is we didn’t get down on ourselves and there was no finger-pointing,” Berube said. “It was a little bit too late, I think. We score one, and they get one right back and kind of nullifies all that work. We were going to try to do a couple of things in the last couple of minutes, but that (Dulac) goal popped the balloon.”