LEWISTON — The Lewiston boys hockey team was down by a goal entering the third period of its Class A quarterfinal against Marshwood/Noble/Sanford/Traip on Thursday at the Colisee. The Blue Devils knew what they needed to do to avoid the upset.
“Just skate your (butt) off, leave it all out on the ice and get it done, you know what I mean?” Lewiston senior Andrew Theriault said.
The defending Class A state champions scored three times in the third period to beat the Knighthawks, 5-3.
No. 2 Lewiston (14-5) advances to the semifinals Tuesday at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland and will face the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 6 Windham/Westbrook/Bonny Eagle and No. 3 Thornton Academy.
Lewiston Coach Sam Cloutier kept his message simple.
“Play hockey, have fun, play within yourselves, and we’ll be OK,” he said.
How did Lewiston win?
• The Blue Devils trailed through the first two periods. Cloutier said they started off slow but battled through the adversity. The seventh-seeded Knighthawks (11-8) suffocated Lewiston’s attack in the neutral zone.
• What helped Lewiston turn things around was the power play. The Blue Devils went 2 for 3 with the man advantage, both goals by Cam Plourde.
“Yeah, a big thing we’ve been struggling with is power play, not generating goals, but we’ve been working on it a lot in practice, and it showed today,” Plourde said.
• The Blue Devils also had success getting to Marshwood goalie Connor Lentz. Four of the five goals came right around the crease. The fifth goal was an empty-netter by Theriault from the defensive zone.
They said it
• “Yeah, I mean, started slow, but we found our legs in the second period, started making passes, started sharing the puck, and it all came together.” — Andrew Theriault
• “Yeah, those two are two of our better players. You know, Andrew’s a senior leader, a senior captain. We needed him to step up tonight, especially having a couple of guys out. Andrew met the challenge head on, and he was one of the best players on the ice tonight. And Cam, he gets that every night. He’s always one of the hardest workers, and he does his thing out there.” — Sam Cloutier
• “Yeah, just one penalty is all it took for them to tie it, and then, you know, they got a lucky empty netter, which put it away for them, but I truly think that we outplayed them the majority of the game.” — Marshwood coach Jack Garnhart
Statistical leaders
Marshwood/Noble/Sanford/Traip: Zac Camp (two goals and an assist), Travis Cole (goal), Lentz (23 saves)
Lewiston: Cam Plourde (hat trick), Andrew Theriault (two goals and an assist), Aizyk Laliberte (two assists), Will Routhier (16 saves),
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