LEWISTON — Lewiston put together two solid periods to win a rematch between last season’s Class A finalists Wednesday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Kyle Lemelin broke up a tight game by scoring the first of his two goals with less than seven minutes left to play in the third period to lead the Devils to a 3-1 win against Falmouth.

Last March, Falmouth beat Lewiston 4-0 in the Class A final.

The Devils (6-1) got revenge by dominating the first and third periods.

“We didn’t get off the bus, in my opinion,” Falmouth Coach Deron Barton said. “The second period was probably a little bit better to the average (observer), but as far as I’m concerned we never got off the bus. That’s not the hockey that we play.

“I’m not taking anything away from (Lewiston). They played three periods of hockey. They stayed more consistent than we did.”

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Goalie Dane Pauls, in his fourth varsity season, made 30 saves to keep the Yachtsmen in the game.

“He gave us a chance to win the whole night,” Barton said. “Without him, it’s not even a game.”

The score was tied 1-1 at the end of a first period dominated by the Devils.

Pauls did all he could to keep Lewiston from scoring. While using every thing but his facemask to keep the puck out, he stopped 10 shots during the first five minutes of the game.

The Yachtsmen (5-4) weren’t able to sustain any pressure in Lewiston’s end but opened the scoring 11:49 into the game when Brandon Peters picked off a pass near his blue line and beat two defenders to score on a breakaway nine seconds into Lewiston’s first power play.

“That’s a boost in any game at any time, and the idea is to build off that,” Barton said. “We did that for a couple of shifts and then we kind of faded away. We weren’t consistent with the intensity at all.”

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With less than two minutes left in the period, Matt Poulin put in a wrist shot from the top of the slot for a power-play goal to tie the score.

After Pauls stopped 19 of 20 shots during the first 15 minutes of the game, it was Lewiston goalie Nick Hawk’s turn to keep his team in the game during the scoreless second period. He stopped 13 shots.

“You’ve got to give Nick a lot of credit,” Lewiston Coach Jamie Beaulieu said. “We weathered the storm in the second period. We didn’t give him much help. He kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win in the third (period).”

Lemelin scored the winning goal on a wrist shot from just inside the right circle. Taking advantage of a Falmouth line change, defenseman Eddie Emerson set it up with a long pass through the neutral zone.

Lemelin completed the scoring by putting it in an empty net with 13 seconds left.

“We didn’t help ourselves out in the second period,” Beaulieu said.

“Fortunately, we responded well in the third (period), and that’s good, but we have to put three of those together.”


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