Lewiston and St. Dom’s played each other in last year’s Class A preliminary game. This season, the archrivals are the top two seeds in the playoffs.

“It’s a big turnaround from last year,” Lewiston coach Jamie King said. “We knew we were young the last couple of years, and we’ve got the older team and just the maturity of the program.”

The Saints, meanwhile, are playing with confidence this season, according to coach Dan D’Auteuil.

St. Dom’s has an older group of players as well, including many who also play on the baseball team that has won back-to-back Class D state championships, which D’Auteuil said should help the hockey team’s run at a state championship.

“They have that championship experience, and they have the desire to win,” D’Auteuil said.

If the Saints and the Blue Devils survive the playoff gauntlet, they will meet in the Class A state championship game at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on March 9.

Lewiston is the top seed in Class A after going 14-4 in the regular season. The Blue Devils will host No. 8 Windham/Westbrook/Bonny Eagle (11-7) in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Lewiston defeated the Trail Blazers 12-4 in the regular-season opener and 7-0 on Feb. 6.

“They move the puck quite well, and they work hard in the offensive zone and the defensive zone,” King said. “We played them last time and their goaltender was hurt. So we haven’t seen the true Windham/Westbrook team. I think their goalie is back in the lineup. So it will be a good game.”

In the semifinals, the winner will face a doozy of a quarterfinal game between No. 4 Falmouth (11-6-1) and No. 5 Thornton Academy (12-6-0), the defending Class A champion. Those teams split during the regular season, the Golden Trojans winning 2-1 on Dec. 21 and the Navigators winning 3-1 on Feb. 7. The third meeting of the season is Friday at 6 p.m.

“I think all top-eight teams, any one of them can win it,” D’Auteuil said. “It will be which team shows up and plays their game. It’s been pretty competitive all the way through. There are teams that didn’t make it that were pretty competitive.”

The semifinals will be on March 6 at Cross Insurance Arena.

St. Dom’s (13-3-2) enters the tournament with the second seed and welcomes the seventh-seeded Portland/South Portland/Deering/Waynflete (9-8-1) to Norway Savings Bank Arena at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Saints defeated the Beacons 4-2 in the season opener.

“They play aggressively and with heart, like we have,” D’Auteuil said. “They are playing deep down and they want to win.”

The Beacons had a 2-1 win over Lewiston and skated to a 0-0 tie with Bangor in the regular season. Goalie Michael Zaccaria had 44 and 36 saves, respectively, in those games.

In the final quarterfinal game, No. 3 Bangor hosts No. 6 Marshwood/Noble/Sanford/Traip at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The winner will face the St. Dom’s-Portland winner.

Bangor and the Marshwood co-op didn’t meet in the regular season. Last year, the Rams upset Edward Little in the No. 3-No. 6 matchup.

CLASS B SOUTH

The top two teams in Class B South enter playoffs on lengthy unbeaten streaks.

Top-seeded Cheverus/Yarmouth is 9-0-2 in the past 11 games, while the second-seeded Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester Kings are on a 13-game winning streak.

Cheverus/Yarmouth (14-2-2) will host Mt. Ararat/Lisbon/Morse/Hyde (1-16-1) on Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. in the regional quarterfinals. Cheverus/Yarmouth has 7-3 and 6-3 wins over the Eagles this season.

Mt. Ararat coach AJ Kavanaugh said the Eagles are ready for the third meeting.

“We seem to match up better with the defensive-driven teams,” Kavanaugh said. “I will say, if we were going to get in that, this would be the matchup we drew. We played Cheverus very tough a few weeks ago — we tied them in the third period. We look forward to giving them a good game.”

The winner takes on the winner of No. 4 Greely and No. 5 Gorham, which will take place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Rangers (12-6-0) earned a 4-1 victory on Feb. 10 and a 2-1 win on Feb. 15 over the Rams (9-8-1).

Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester (15-3-0) will host seventh-seeded Kennebunk/Wells (5-13-0) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The Kings defeated the Rams 5-2 on Jan. 27 and 8-2 on Feb. 14.

“In fact, they were up on us coming out of the first period,” Kings coach Jason Rouleau said of the Jan. 27 game. “We came back and won that game. The second game was a different outcome from a score perspective. We have been able to maintain our focus on the prize, which is to get play on March 9. We’ve leveraged that focus against anyone we have played and we will keep doing that.”

The state championship for Class B is also on March 9 at the Cross Insurance Arena.

The Kings are one of highest scoring teams in the state, with 129 goals in the regular season and five games with 10-plus goals.

Rouleau said that the Kings need to keep their heads steady during their playoff run.

“The key is to keep our composure,” Rouleau said. “This is a new season, and unfortunately in that new season, if you lose one you are done. You have to overcome the adversity and deal with whatever is unfolding during the game, and at the end of the day, do what it takes to win the game.”

The winner awaits either No. 3 York (13-3-2) or No. 6 Brunswick/Freeport (5-12-1). Both regular season games were close, with the Wildcats earning a 3-2 overtime win on Jan. 13 and a 3-1 victory  last Wednesday. The teams meet Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

The regional semifinals are on March 2 at Troubh Ice Arena in Portland at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The regional final is at the Cross Insurance Arena on March 6.

Kavanaugh expects the B South tournament to be a battle.

“I think those top four have played good games against each other and have shown in the few cross-overs that they are the top of the class in the whole state,” Kavanaugh said. “I think it’s a very strong top half of our division. It’s going to be some good hockey.”

CLASS B NORTH

In Northern Maine, Messalonskee (14-4-0), the regional champion last season, is the top seed again. Behind the Eagles is
Cony/Hall-Dale/Monmouth/Maranacook/Winthrop/Erskine/Richmond/Oceanside (13-5).

“Our goal is to go as fast as we can, and it still is,” Cony co-op coach Douglas Dieuveuil said. “That has always been our goal, and it’s been one game at a time. That’s our focus, one day at a time throughout the whole season because we knew we had a long way to go. We had to learn our team. We had to learn what our systems we were running overall and learn a completely different culture.”

Dieuveuil is in his first year as coaching the Rams, who went 2-15-1 in 2022-23.

Messalonskee will take on eighth-seeded Old Town/Orono in the regional quarterfinals on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The teams only met once in the regular season and the Eagles skated away with a 7-0 win on Feb. 10.

The winner of that matchup will play No. 4 Presque Isle (12-6-0) or No. 5 Camden Hills (12-6-0) in the Northern Maine semifinals. The Wildcats and Windjammers face off Tuesday at 6 p.m. The teams played twice the regular season, with Presque Isle winning 3-2 on Dec. 23 and Camden Hills winning 3-1 on Feb. 3.

The Cony co-op faces Brewer/Lawrence/Skowhegan in the regional quarterfinals at the Ice Vault in Hallowell at 6:20 p.m. The Rams earned a 6-3 win over the Witches on Feb. 10.

Dieuveuil said the Witches are a dangerous seventh seed.

“They are a team that can’t be lightly,” Dieuveuil said. “They have a lot of potential and skill, and they are a younger team in the league. Every time they go out, they battle. It’s going to be a tough contest. … Their coach (Denis Collins) has been around for a while and has had success overall — he knows how to win.”

Collins was the longtime Bangor coach and won a Class B state championship with Old Town/Orono in 2018.

The Cony-Brewer winner will face the winner of No. 3 Hampden/Nokomis (10-6-2) and No. 6 John Bapst/Hermon/Bangor Christian/Deer Isle-Stonington (9-8-1). Both teams beat the other by a score of 5-3 in the regular season.

Dieuveuil said the regular season indicates that many of the quarterfinal games can go either way.

“B North, as we’ve seen, can compete with most teams in the state — it doesn’t matter if it’s A or B,” Dieuveuil said. “We have a lot of strong talent in B North because anybody can beat anybody.”

The regional semifinals are on March 2 at The Forum in Presque Isle at 2 and 4:30 p.m. The B North final is on March 5 at Alfond Arena in Orono at 6:30 p.m.

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