BIDDEFORD — Lewiston, the top team in Class A North, trailed for just 41 seconds Tuesday night before finding its rhythm to register a 4-1 boys’ hockey victory over Biddeford at Biddeford Ice Arena.

“(Lewiston) played excellent hockey tonight – they were all over us,” said Biddeford Coach Jason Tremblay. “Like I told our team, they beat us in all phases of the game – they outskilled us, outworked us and outplayed us. They’re a great team and they’re number one in the state for a reason.

“We’ll learn from it. It’s a good measuring stick for us.”

The Tigers (4-2) scored 57 seconds into the game when Colin Petit beat Blue Devils goalie Jacob Strout (10 saves) to the puck between the circles and poked the puck into an unoccupied net.

But Lewiston (7-0) tied it 41 seconds later when Sam Frechette knocked in a rebound from in close with Tanner Cortes and Alex Rivet collecting assists.

The Blue Devils gained the lead for good, scoring with 1:21 left in the evenly played first period. Rivet’s hard shot from the top of the left circle was kicked out by Tigers goalie Justin Larnerd (30 saves), but the rebound came to Joe Bisson at the bottom of the right circle and he one-timed it into an empty net.

“We had to pause after the goal,” Rivet said. “Everyone looked around and wondered what (had) happened. We said let’s play our game and we’ll get back into it.

“Every championship team has ups and downs. Bouncing back (quickly) in a big game like this is what we needed.”

Lewiston stretched the lead to 3-1 on Alex Robert’s breakaway goal at 5:51 of the second. He took a long pass from Cole Ouellette and beat Larnerd with a wrister to the high stick side. Strout was credited with the second assist.

Biddeford still had plenty of opportunities with four second-period power plays. It had a two-man advantage for 43 seconds at the end of the period when the Blue Devils received a 5-minute major for boarding, but the Tigers weren’t able to get a shot on goal.

With fresh ice to start the third period, the Tigers still had 3:19 on the major penalty but again couldn’t generate much. They recorded three shots on goal, but Lewiston had two.

Midway through the third Biddeford went on its fifth man advantage. But Rivet, Frechette and Bisson (twice) all had quality-scoring chances as Lewiston had a 4-0 shot advantage on the power play.

“We could have let the game get away because we took too many penalties,” said Lewiston Coach Jamie Belleau. “But on the flip side our man-down coverage was very good. We had some good scoring opportunities.”

All Tremblay could do was commend the visiting team.

“With the power plays we had chances to get back in the game, but we just didn’t respond,” he said. “I tip my cap to them.”

Cody Doyon scored Lewiston’s final goal when he knocked in a rebound from the goal crease off Dustin Larochelle’s initial shot from the left circle.