Lewiston again became king of the Class A mountain Saturday with a 5-0 victory over Bangor in the Class A final at Cross Insurance Arena — four years and two days after their previous state championship.
“It’s been four long years,” senior captain Cody Dionne said. “You can’t really put it into words how much it means to us and to the community.”
The world was a different place on March 7, 2020.
The coronavirus was in the news but was a few days away from drastically changing our lives, and that day, back when state finals were played at The Colisee, the Lewiston boys hockey team capped off a perfect season with a Class A state championship by beating Scarborough 2-1 in double overtime.
It was the Blue Devils’ fourth state title in five seasons.
Since then, the Lewiston dynasty was derailed by departures. Along with graduations, many of the program’s top players left to play either for prep teams or at the junior level — the Blue Devils were probably victims of their own success. Then, in 2021, head coach Jamie Belleau stepped down.
The new head coach, longtime assistant Jamie King, took over before the 2021-22 team with a group of young players.
The expectations, though, were the same.
And, they were hard to live up to.
Some of this year’s Blue Devils have brothers or fathers who have won state titles. Possibly grandpas. They were about middle-school age for the most recent championship run. King knows the tradition well — he won a state championship as a player and was an assistant for several others.
When it was finally this group’s turn to get theirs, they instead got a rebuild.
When the seniors were freshmen, there was no postseason due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next year, with King at the helm, the Blue Devils finished 9-11 and lost in the quarterfinals. Last season, they were 7-12-1 and again lost in the quarterfinals.
That’s not the Lewiston way, which had to be frustrating.
“A lot of adversity — especially the seniors, the first three years, a lot of adversity,” Dionne said.
Whatever power mystique holds over opponents was either gone or severely diminished, so this group was going to have to win on its own.
The Blue Devils opened this season with five straight victories and won the St. Dom’s holiday tournament. The latter was a big confidence boost.
Then came a dose of reality or humility. During a seven-game stretch between Jan. 6 and Jan. 24, the Blue Devils lost four times.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
“It was a little bit of a rough patch around the start of January,” senior Dylan Blue, a Travis Roy Award finalist, said. “We knew that we could play … we were just tired. After that Christmas tournament, we got a little off our game. But we had a good bounce-back in the end.”
After dropping back-to-back games to Bangor on Jan. 19, and St. Dom’s on Jan. 24, the Blue Devils didn’t falter again. They won their final six games of the regular season, earning the No. 1 seed in the Class A playoffs, and then their three postseason games.
First, they beat Windham/Westbrook/Bonny Eagle 7-4 in the Class A quarterfinals. Those four goals were the last Lewiston allowed this season. The Blue Devils shut out defending state champion Thornton Academy 4-0 in Wednesday’s semifinals and finished by blanking Bangor 5-0 on Saturday.
A dominating finish. Now, Lewiston is the state champ again, for the 25th time in program history.
“You know, there’s high expectations for Lewiston, and winning,” Dionne said, “and it was tough coming in and not winning right away, but we worked hard for it, and you can’t say we didn’t deserve this.”
The Blue Devils will lose eight seniors who have been through it all but never gave in during their careers. They’ll be missed. But they’re leaving the program in good shape.
Saturday’s first goal was scored by junior Hayden Brown. Sophomore Aizyk Laliberte notched a hat trick — a feat that will be remembered for a long time in Lewiston. Junior goalie Gabe Pomerleau made several great saves and earned shutouts in the semifinal and state final. The three freshmen, Cam Plourde, Deano Scalia and Daelan Hodgson, all played a lot Saturday. As did Laliberte and the other sophomores.
“These kids are fine,” Dionne, the other goal scorer, said. “We’ve got great freshmen, great underclassmen. They’ll be back to Lewiston winning a lot, for sure.”
It’s possible that more departures will happen, but for now, the Blue Devils are back on top.
They earned it.
Sun Journal sports editor Lee Horton can be contacted at lhorton@sunjournal.com.
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