Lauren Lessard and Taylor Teixeira, who when one stands on the other’s shoulders might be 10 feet tall, grinned, looked at the ground and then at each other. And they giggled again.

“It’s a lot of pressure to handle,” Teixeira said, “but if we do what we know we can do, hopefully we’ll get the result that we want.”

The pressure the girls are feeling is something new to them, though not to their team.

Teixeira and Lessard are two of five freshmen on the Lewiston Blue Devils’ girls’ hockey roster. The team, for the second year in a row, will play for the a state title at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“We have a very different team, in terms of the people on the ice and just the makeup of the team,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont said. “We didn’t think at first it would be so different, but after we lost a few players to graduation, we lost another to an injury and another to a transfer, we were happy we had so many freshmen coming in who could fill right in.”

Last year, Lewiston rolled out one freshman in a veteran-dominated team. Now, Marisa Zamrock, the team’s leading scorer both last year and this year, is a veteran — as a sophomore.

“It felt great to be able to get playing time and be on the second line as a freshman last year,” Zamrock said. “To win a state championship as a freshman was great, and it feels good to be back here again. It’s not as intimidating this time like it was last year. Last year, I was wicked nervous, knowing that if we lost, it was the end of it.”

Zamrock, along with the team’s five seniors, is charged with providing an example for the younger players, in terms of work ethic, pride and accountability.

The team lost one more game in the regular season in the 2009-10 campaign but, other than that, the mission appears to have been accomplished.

“We’re a very different team from last year, but one thing that’s the same, we all believe we can do it,” senior co-captain Emilie Cloutier said.

Cloutier, co-captain Kristen Lacasse, Olivia Cote, Mariah Conway and Bianca Langelier are used to the hype surrounding a state championship. All of them skated in last year’s 6-4 win over Biddeford in the title game.

“It’s different, it’s not a regular-season game, and you realize that you have to put everything out there, all you have, or you might be done for the year,” Cloutier said.

For the younger players, the fact that the path to this year’s state final went through rival St. Dom’s was a big help.

“Looking back on it, it was probably the best thing for our team, especially for the freshmen, with all of the excitement and adrenaline you get from playing against your rival,” Dumont said. “I mean, it made it that much scarier to have to play against them, but given the result we had, we can say that now.”

“We’d never played in front of crowds like we have this year, especially in the playoffs,” Teixeira said. “It was fun to play in front of that many people, especially against St. Dom’s.”

“We’ve played on travel teams with, like, four people in the stands,” Lessard added.

The Devils, young and old, will face a daunting task Saturday in the final, where they’ll meet No. 1 overall seed, undefeated Cheverus. The Stags have allowed 11 goals in 20 total games this season, including a pair of playoff victories, thanks in large part to stellar goaltending from Saundrine Lanouette. Lewiston and Cheverus met early in the season, with Cheverus handling Lewiston 5-0.

“The last time we played them it didn’t come out in our favor,” Cloutier said. “Their goalie is great, we give all the credit to her, the team is great. But I think if we execute the way we know we can, break it down and do what we need to, we have a chance. Our younger players have come a long way this year already, and we know what it’s like, having been there last year.”

“This is the game you circle at the beginning of the year,” Dumont said. “The younger pleayers have really matured and the older players kind of took them under their wing. Now it’s time to see what we can do, playing together as a team.”