By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Not many hockey teams can feel as confident with four skaters on the ice as they do with five.

For the Lewiston Blue Devils, the feeling isn’t so much of confidence as it is of certainty – their penalty-killing unit has not allowed a single goal in the post-season.

Against Brunswick on Tuesday, Lewiston was 9-for-9. Against Bangor, the Blue Devils fought off five Rams’ power plays after doing likewise against Lawrence in Round 1.

“I’m a firm believer that when you give a team a lot of time to make decisions, especially on a power play, they’re going to be able to break you down,” said Lewiston coach Norm Gagne. “If you limit the amount of time they have, it hurries them. I roll the dice on that, I’m going to take that chance and go after you.”

Things didn’t start so well for the Blue Devils, though. To begin the season, not only were they taking more penalties, but the new system, which Gagne has developed over the years, took time to learn.

“It was really a tough piece of it,” said Lewiston assistant Jeff Ross, a longtime assistant under Gagne. “Most of them had never played it before or seen it before and it was really tough for them to figure out how it works.”

Even now, the players themselves have a hard time describing it.

“We just try to be as aggressive as possible,” said senior defenseman Kevin LeBlanc. “I have to cover the man out front, but you have to know what the other defenseman is doing. I don’t know really how else to describe it.”

“We try to put a lot of pressure, make them make decisions and cough up the puck,” said sophomore Jordan Bourgoin. “It almost seems like they panic, they’re not used to that.”

One of the key reasons the aggressive style is so successful is an oft-overlooked, key cog in the penalty-killing wheel – the goaltender.

“From the day I saw Brian (Nason), I knew he was going to be the force we needed him to be,” said Gagne. “To have a guy that knows when to come out, how to play the puck, where to put the puck, that’s all important because if anyone tries to dump it in, he can throw it right back out.

Lewiston’s netminder knows well how important he is to killing off penalties, and has developed confidence in his ability to be that third defenseman inside the zone.

“I got rid of that nervousness back in travel days,” said Nason. “I used to come out and play the puck, and it used to scare the coaches, but they’ve gotten used to it.”

The philosophy is simple enough, with the four outward skaters playing in an extended diamond. Traditionally, a team will play 1-1-2 style through the center zone. The Blue Devils’ diamond is a bit more tricky.

“It’s important to make them make mistakes,” said Ross. “In the zone we really want them to be aggressive. If you see a loose puck, you go get it. If you see them look down, go after them. We really like to incorporate the aggressive play from the guys, and we use the guys that are aggressive.”

The top PK unit of Travis Lebrun, Jordan Bourgoin, Toby Poirier and Kevin LeBlanc are all a certain kind of player, and the second unit (there really is just one large unit with interchangeable pieces) of Brandon Girardin, Jon Roy, Danny Cloutier, Matt Letourneau and Ian Doucette also fill that mold.

Not that the Blue Devils are going out to take penalties Saturday when they face Cheverus for the state title for the second time in two years, but if they do, they are confident – nay, certain – that they will be able to kill off the ensuing Cheverus power play.

“I’ve been told that playing a Gagne team is like playing a basketball team with a full-court press for 90 minutes,” said Gagne. “That’s basically the way I like to go after it. Full-court press, 45 minutes.”