PORTLAND – The two-goal lead the Lewiston Blue Devils spotted Cheverus this time around wasn’t as dramatic, but for the Stags, it was enough.
Eugene Fitzpatrick and Jonathan Anton each scored in the second period and Lewiston never recovered.
Despite a 26-save effort by netminder Brian Nason, including 15 in the second period alone, the Blue Devils fell to the Stags 4-2 at the Portland Ice Arena Thursday night.
The last time the two teams had met, Cheverus scored two quick first-period goals and went on to beat Lewiston in last year’s state final game at the Colisee.
“It’s going to be a very interesting next five weeks,” said Cheverus coach Jack Lowry. “We really needed a big victory against a big club, and this was one of those.”
In the first of two meetings between these two top teams in Class A in a week’s time, the Stags took advantage of a stagnant Lewiston team through the middle part of the second period, and took control of the game from there.
“We played very well in the first period, both teams did,” said Lewiston coach Norm Gagne. “We came out sluggish for about 10 minutes in the second period, where they beat us to the puck and we were all over the ice.”
The only reason it wasn’t four or five to nothing was Nason, who twice in 30 seconds stopped forward Geno DeMillo on breakaways in the first, and again on a chance at the right side of the net early in the second.
“He’s going to give up some rebounds,” said Gagne of Nason’s butterfly style, “but he certainly had a great game today and we didn’t do what we needed to do in front of him.”
The goal that may have broken the Blue Devils’ back was the Stags’ second of the game, at 3:03 of the second period when Jonathan Anton took a puck from the Blue Devils’ defense at the right side of the cage and made a move to put Nason down on the ice before wrapping the puck into the net.
“That was the big one,” said Lowry. “After it was 2-0, we were able to dictate the play, it was much more comfortable.”
With just over a minute to play in the first, a blast from the point by Paul Morrison hit Nason in the left pad and bounced off the post behind him. Nason reached back with his glove and covered it before the Stags could get the rebound.
Cheverus came out on fire in the second, putting four shots on Nason in the first 25 seconds. The fourth, a rebound shot by Eugene Fitzpatick, eluded Nason and gave the Stags a 1-0 edge.
Less than three minutes later, Anton made it 2-0.
In the third, Lewiston twice climbed to within one on goals from Ian Doucette and Toby Poirier, but Alex Arthur scored into an empty net with 1:07 to play to ice the win for Cheverus.
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