There are times at hockey practice when Leah Landry will pass up an easy shot. Landry will have the goalie beat, and all she has to do is flick the puck to that wide open space for a goal.

But it’s practice. Landry doesn’t need this goal. She needs to work on a shot that comes with a greater degree of difficulty, because she knows in a big moment in a big game, the easy shot isn’t going to be there.

That shot came early in the second period of the state championship game against Scarborough. With the Red Storm’s excellent goalie, AJ Swett, leaving Landry little net with which to work, the Lewiston High senior shot high, over Swett’s glove, for the first goal in a 3-0 Blue Devils win.

“I like to challenge myself in practice. (Swett) did have a really good glove. I was at that angle, and it was the only shot I had. I’d taken that shot before and it didn’t go in,” Landry said.

This winter, the Lewiston forward combined her physical talent and high hockey IQ to collect 30 goals and 23 assists in 19 games. Landry’s hard work was rewarded with Lewiston’s second straight state title (the Blue Devils also won ]in 2020, and there was no state tournament in 2021), and she was honored with the Becky Schaffer Award, given annually to the top senior girls’ hockey player in the state.

Coming off her dominant season, Landry is the Varsity Maine girls’ hockey Player of the Year.

“She’s very versatile,” Lewiston Coach Ron Dumont said of Landry. “At the start of practice, I’d give them 10 minutes before we got to work as a team to talk with their teammates or skate around or whatever. She was always working on something.”

Scott Rousseau, head coach of Cheverus/Old Orchard Beach/Kennebunk/Windham, said Landry was a player opponents had to account for at all times.

“If you didn’t base your entire game plan on stopping her, it was going to be a long night,” Rousseau said.

It wasn’t just that Landry scored a lot, it was that her goals came at the biggest moments, Rousseau said. In the state final, Landry scored the first goal and added an empty netter to seal the win with 1:25 left. In a 1-0 overtime victory over Cheverus late in the regular season, Landry scored the only goal.

At 5-foot-8, Landry was bigger than many of her opponents, and she used her size and reach to create space for herself, and also to bother opponents when they had possession.

“All of a sudden, she pokes that stick and takes the puck away,” Dumont said.

Dumont said Landry’s ability to think was vital to her success. When teaching the Blue Devils a drill, Dumont could see Landry connecting the dots and thinking ahead to when whatever was being practiced would be essential in a game.

“We’d go over options 1, 2 and 3, and she can break it down and tell me why she chose option 3. She sees the game really well,” Dumont said. “You have players who are pretty skilled and they are what they are, but she makes the players around her better.”

Over the course of her four years, Landry grew into a leadership role. Dumont doesn’t think Landry said three words to him when she was a freshman. As a senior, Landry was vocal, talking out the game with her coach and teammates.

“Freshman year, I was more nervous. Obviously I was young and wasn’t ready to start taking charge,” Landry said. “As I got older, it was easier to become a natural leader.”

Ranked sixth academically in her class, Landry said she’s still mulling her college options, and whether or not she’ll attend a school where she can play hockey.

“I’m still trying to figure out where I want to go,” she said.

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