PORTLAND – It was a memorable evening for Lewiston High School junior right wing Jon Roy and his Blue Devils as they captured their third straight Eastern Maine Class A championship.
Roy notched his first four-goal game of the season Tuesday night and Lewiston beat Bangor in the playoffs for the fourth straight year, 8-4, at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Fourth-seeded Lewiston (13-9-1) will play the winner of the Biddeford-Scarborough game in Saturday’s 6 p.m. state final at The Colisee in Lewiston.
Lewiston is 10-1-1 in its last 12 games.
Third-seeded Bangor wound up 14-8-1 after having its six-game winning streak snapped.
The Rams hadn’t allowed more than five goals in a game this season and hadn’t allowed a goal in its previous two playoff games.
“I never thought we’d score this many goals,” said Roy. “I figured it would be a 2-1 game. We were able to get pucks to the net and get guys going to the net.”
The last three playoff meetings between the two were decided by one goal but Roy took the drama out of this one early.
He triggered a three-goal first-period flurry that covered a span of 4:58 and also included goals by Justin Nadeau and Ian Doucette.
Roy extended the lead to 5-0 with his second and third goals early in the second period.
After Bangor’s Matt Boehmer and Johnny Warren cut the lead to 5-2 and gave the Rams some energy and momentum, Roy dashed Bangor’s comeback dream with 2:14 left in the middle period.
Boehmer gave the Rams a glimmer of hope by scoring shorthanded 12 seconds into the third period but Joe Klemanski iced it with 4:32 remaining and Robbie Leeman added another insurance goal before Bangor’s Joel Whitney capped the scoring with a five-on-three goal with 39 seconds left.
“I’d love to have that first period back,” said Bangor coach Ted Taylor.
“We all had the jitters,” explained Boehmer.
Lewiston coach Norm Gagne said the Blue Devils wanted to throw as many pucks on net as possible and force 6-foot, 220-pound Bangor goalie Andrew Riley to move side to side.
“I thought a big key was our composure around the net,” said Gagne.
“They came out flying. They were on top of us all night,” said Riley, who had a rare off night.
Lewiston transitioned from defense to offense exceptionally well and the Blue Devils also used their quickness to generate several second-chance opportunities.
Roy opened the scoring at 5:17 when he was set up nicely from behind the net by linemate Jordan Bourgoin. Roy one-timed a low wrist shot inside the far post from the left circle.
Defenseman Nadeau extended the lead while Lewiston was shorthanded as Bourgoin won a draw back to him and his low slap shot beat Riley to the far post.
“It was going 10 feet wide but it hit off [defenseman] Jake Silver and deflected in,” said Riley.
Doucette made it 3-0 off a scramble in front. Riley had made a couple of stops but the puck deflected across the low slot and Doucette lifted it into the half-empty short side with Riley down and out.
Roy scored twice 1:58 apart in the second period.
Casey Poussard found Roy behind the Bangor defense and put a pass right on his tape for a breakaway that Roy converted with a backhander over Riley’s blocker.
“I was trying to bring it to my forehand but he moved over so I put to my backhand,” said Roy.
The opportunistic Roy made it 5-0 when his centering pass from behind the net glanced in off a Bangor defenseman.
Boehmer got one back by batting a rebound out of the air past Lewiston goalie Dylan Labonte and Warren scored 1:44 later as he went wide on a Lewiston defenseman, absorbed a check and lifted the puck over Labonte’s right pad.
Labonte made a couple of important saves to preserve the three-goal lead and Roy expanded it by taking a tape-to-tape diagonal pass from Poussard, skating a couple of strides, and wristing the puck into the far corner from the right circle under Riley’s arm.
“I expected him to make the save. I was hoping for a rebound,” said Roy.
“I was off my angle,” said Riley.
Boehmer opened the third-period scoring when he broke in down the right wing and flipped the puck inside the near post.
But Labonte made some timely saves until Klemanski sewed it up by jamming the puck off Riley and into the net after Craig Sirois had bounced off a check and tapped the puck ahead to him.
“They played well,” said Bangor sophomore center Warren. “Every chance they had, they seemed to take advantage of it.”
The shots were even at 27-27.
Labonte credited his defense for “helping me out a lot. They allowed me to see the puck so I was able to make saves.”
Poussard and Bourgoin, Roy’s linemates, had three assists apiece.
Nick George had two assists for Bangor and Warren and Whitney each had an assist to go with their goals.
BLUE DEVILS 8, RAMS 4
Lewiston (13-9-1) 3 3 2 – 8
Bangor (14-8-1) 0 2 2 – 4
First period – 1. Lew, Roy (Bourgoin, Poussard), 5:17; 2. Lew, Nadeau (Bourgoin), 6:51 (sh); 3. Lew, Doucette (Letourneau, Sirois), 10:15 (pp). Penalties: Lew, Klemanski, interference, 5:42; Ban, Whitney, cross-checking, 9:14; Lew, Roy, hooking, 10:49; Ban, Warren, cross-checking, 11:08.
Second period – 4. Lew, Roy (Poussard, Letourneau), 2:42; 5. Lew, Roy (Bourgoin, Poussard), 4:40; 6. Ban, Boehmer (George, Dionne), 5:07; 7. Ban, Warren (Whitney, Silver), 6:51 (pp); 8. Lew, Roy (Bourgoin, Godbout), 12:46. Penalties: Ban, George, tripping, :29; Lew, Brown, elbowing, 5:54; Lew, Doucette, tripping, 7:13; Ban, Warren, cross-checking, 13:44.
Third period – 9. Ban, Boehmer (unassisted), :13 (sh); 10. Lew, Klemanski (Sirois), 10:28; 11. Lew, Leeman (Nadeau, Doucette), 10:50; 12. Ban, Whitney (George, Warren), 14:21 (pp). Penalties: Lew, Nadeau, holding, 1:33; Ban, Mooers, tripping, 6:35; Lew, Doucette, tripping, 12:37; Ban, Dionne, roughing, 13:02; Lew, Martin, roughing, 13:02; Lew, Letourneau, holding, 13:02; Lew, Roy, cross-checking and roughing, 14:08.
Shots on goal: Lewiston 8-10-9-27; Bangor 5-9-13-27
Goaltenders: Lewiston, Labonte (27 shots-23 saves); Bangor, Riley (27-19)
Power-play opportunities: Lewiston 1 of 5; Bangor 2 of 7
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