Cheverus/Windham goalie Ella Lemieux pushes aside a shot by Azalea Grant of the Gorham co-op team during the South final on Wednesday. Lemieux and the Stags will be seeking a second straight state championship Saturday when they face last year’s runner-up, Yarmouth/Freeport. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Guarding the Cheverus/Windham net in Saturday’s girls’ hockey state championship game will be Ella Lemieux, a senior and arguably the most accomplished girls’ hockey goalie in the state. Between the pipes at the other end of the ice for Yarmouth/Freeport will be Lexi Wiles, a talented freshman who emerged this season as one of the top goalies in the state despite her inexperience.
Before a recent practice, Wiles thought about how long she’s played hockey.
“I’ve been playing for about two months now,” Wiles said.
Wait, did she say two months?
In Lemieux, the Stags have a savvy veteran with a ton of playoff experience. In Wiles, the Clippers have a newcomer whose confidence and determination outweigh her abject lack of experience. Both Lemieux and Wiles have been instrumental players for their teams, who meet Saturday in the state championship game for the second straight season, won last season by Cheverus, 3-2. It’s the first girls’ hockey championship game rematch since the Maine Principals’ Association sponsored the first title game in 2009. The puck is scheduled to drop at 6:10 p.m. at Auburn’s Norway Savings Bank Arena.
There were just three goalies with a goals-against average below 2.00 this season. Lemieux leads the state with a 1.13 GAA, while Wiles is third at 1.83. Ellie Skolnekovich, Lemieux’s backup, has a 1.51 GAA in seven games.
Lexi Wiles of Yarmouth/Freeport stops a shot Tuesday during the North championship game against Penobscot. Wiles, a freshman in her first year playing hockey, has solidified the goaltending position for a team making its second consecutive trip to the state final. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Wiles has ably replaced Ava Gervais, another first-year starting goalie (as a senior) who helped Yarmouth/Freeport reach the state final a year ago.
“She’s such a positive person. She has such a great attitude toward life in general. She’s just super determined. She wants to get better, for everyone, not just herself,” Yarmouth/Freeport senior captain Sophie Smith said of Wiles. “She has such a good instinct in the net. She has that grit, that determination.”
Lemieux boasts a .941 save percentage and has six shutouts this season. She’s one of nine semifinalists for the Becky Schaffer Award, given to the top senior in Maine high school girls’ hockey.
Lemieux became a goalie in seventh grade, a few years after she started playing hockey.
“I played goalie for fun in a floor hockey game, and I had a lot of fun, so I was like, why not? Let me try it. And here I am now,” Lemieux said.
Aside from time missed last season because of an injury, Lemieux has been a mainstay for the Stags since her sophomore season. With a 3-0 victory over Gorham in the regular-season finale, Lemieux set the school record for career wins with 34. Cheverus Coach Scott Rousseau said Lemieux’s mental approach is more important than her physical tools.
“She’s like all the rest of our seniors. We don’t get too high, we don’t get too low. We really stay task-driven. OK, we give up a goal, what did we learn from it? We keep playing,” Rousseau said. “We remind the kids, there are going to be bad moments in big games. Let me tell you, it’s inevitable. So keep playing. You have to have the strength of character to say, what can I do different next time, and keep playing.”
Despite having limited skating experience, Wiles decided to try hockey last summer at the request of assistant coach Joe Morrill, also an assistant coach with the Yarmouth softball team. Head coach David Intraversato remembered Wiles showing up with goalie pads, smiling and having a blast. Wiles could barely stand on her skates, Intraversato said, but she kept making saves.
When Wiles was in net for back-to-back midseason wins over two of the best teams in the state, 2-1 over Cheverus and 6-0 over the Gorham co-op team, that convinced Intraversato that she was ready to be the full-time starter. In those games, Wiles and the Clippers held two of the top scorers in the state, Cheverus star Lucy Johnson (32 goals) and Gorham’s Emerson Homa (45 goals) without a goal.
“She just wants to get better, and that’s the type of kid you want in goal. Nothing phases her. She shakes things off,” Intraversato said. “You hear it all the time, you need a memory like a goldfish, and that’s her. Somebody scores, she doesn’t care. She’s going to get up and save the next one.”
Both Lemieux and Wiles exude confidence. When Intraversato went to give Wiles a pep talk before the regional final against Penobscot, a team that defeated the Clippers 4-1 the previous time they played, she stopped him with a simple “I’ve got it, Coach. I’m all set.”
Wiles said her confidence helped keep her nerves at bay in the 3-1 win over Penobscot, when she made 22 saves.
Lemieux also welcomes the magnitude of a big game.
“Honestly, I like the pressure. I like being able to stop the shots. It’s fun being in front of everyone,” Lemieux said.
After Wednesday’s win over Gorham, Johnson thought of a save Lemieux made on a Homa breakaway in the third period. What does Lemieux mean to your team, Johnson was asked.
“Literally everything,” Johnson said. “She’s the best goalie ever.”
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