LEWISTON – With his bright red hair and a long, lanky build, Brian Nason was probably known by several nicknames growing up.
The senior Lewiston High School goaltender can add “Superman” to that list of names thanks to his third-period heroics against St. Dom’s on Saturday night.
Largely untested for most of the game, Nason turned aside two point-blank St. Dom’s chances with less than three minutes to play in regulation, including one diving stop after which St. Dom’s forward Richard Paradis raised his arms to celebrate, to help Lewiston hang on to a 2-1 win over the rival Saints at the Colisee.
“I just had to stay focused the whole game,” said Nason. “After we scored the second goal, I knew they’d turn up the pressure big time. That one play, they had a wide-open net, and I knew it, so I dove over and got the shot with my glove. It hit my glove. It was kind of lucky.”
Both netminders actually came up big all game, with St. Dom’s keeper Brady Blackman seeing the lion’s share of the action. Blackman stopped 35 of 37 shots in a tough loss.
“Nason came up with some big-time saves for us,” said Lewiston coach Norm Gagne, “and don’t forget Blackman on the other end. He stopped a lot of high-quality chances we had all night.”
The game-winner came from sophomore Jordan Bourgoin at 9:50 of the final frame. Following a prolonged period of Lewiston pressure, the Saints finally cleared the zone, even getting two shots off on Nason. This time, though, Bourgoin pinched along the left boards on a clearing attempt by St. Dom’s defenseman Joe Theriault. The puck caught Bourgoin in the chest and fell to the ice in front of him. Skating up the left side, Bourgoin slid to the middle of the high slot and used the remaining defenseman as a screen, shooting the puck high to Blackman’s glove side and over his shoulder to put the Blue Devils ahead 2-1.
“I used the defenseman as a screen,” said Bourgoin. “I skated one way across the slot and shot the other.”
We’ve been trying to get him to shoot more,” said Gagne. “He has a good shot, but he tends to pass more than he shoots, and he passes up good scoring chances. This time, he shot and got the goal.”
The score may mislead some people into thinking the game was tighter than it was.
“They came out flying tonight,” St. Dom’s coach John Pleau said. “They caught us a little flat-footed.”
All night, Lewiston players were beating the Saints to the puck, creating havoc in the St. Dom’s defensive zone.
“That’s what we need to do all the time,” said Lewiston forward Brandon Girardin. “We beat them to the puck all night; that’s why we won.”
In the first period, the Blue Devils did everything but put the puck behind Blackman, outshooting the Saints 14-5 and keeping the puck deep for more than half the period. The Saints, though, got the upper hand on Lewiston’s only major mistake of the opening frame.
Nick Stalford took a tip feed from Alex Tyburski in the center of the slot, curled to the right and sniped a shot off the crossbar over Nason’s left shoulder and in to put St. Dom’s ahead 1-0 just one minute into the game.
“We thought that might give us a little more momentum than it did,” said Pleau. “Stalford has a nice shot and our game plan was to go upstairs on Nason, and he listened well to that.”
St. Dom’s had the chances it needed to put the game out of reach early, but failed to convert on two consecutive 5-on-3 advantages in the middle part of the first.
“I was close to asking the referee not to call any more penalties on them,” said Pleau. “We looked awful on our power play, and we had practiced it all week.”
At 7:21, St. Dom’s lost a major asset in captain Tyler Martin, who cleared the red line, dumped the puck in and then took a hard, legal check from Lewiston defenseman Toby Poirier on the right boards. Martin stayed on the ice for several minutes before being helped to the locker room.
“He went to the hospital with a concussion,” said Pleau. “That kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit.”
In the second, Lewiston continued to dominate the game, this time thanks to three consecutive 5-on-4 advantages. On the third try, at 12:01 of the middle frame, Ian Doucette finally poked the puck past Blackman to knot the score at one. Matt Letourneau and Casey Poussard were also in the area, creating a distraction in front for two other defensemen and Blackman.
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