AUBURN — Goalie Ella Lemieux did some cleaning and took a walk. Forward Mikayla Talbot tried to stay active and hung out with her teammates. Cheverus/Windham girls’ hockey coach Scott Rousseau watched some golf and exercised. With all day to kill before the state championship game, Rousseau and his team needed to find way to relax.

“We talked about it yesterday. Anything but hockey,” Rousseau said.

When it was time to focus on hockey shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday the Stags were ready. The best girls’ hockey team in the state throughout the regular season, Cheverus/Windham left no doubt Saturday night at Norway Savings Bank Arena, taking a 4-0 win over Yarmouth/Freeport to win a second straight state championship.

“For the most part, we’ve had the same group of girls both years, so winning it back-to-back was really special, especially for the seniors,” said Talbot, who scored two goals and assisted on two others.

The Stags finish the season with a 19-1 record, losing only to Yarmouth/Freeport in the regular season. The Clippers (17-5) were the runner-up for the second consecutive season.

Cheverus broke a scoreless tie just 1:04 into the second period when Talbot put in the rebound of a Caroline Rousseau shot. Getting the lead early in the second was important to break the building tension of a scoreless game, Talbot said.

“It’s important to jump on the rebounds, especially against this team. They’re really good at defense. Jumping on those loose pucks and getting on the board first was definitely a good start for us,” Talbot said.

The Stags pushed their lead to 2-0 at 11:07 on a 2-on-1 rush. Lucy Johnson made a pass from the left circle to Talbot, who fired a hard, high shot over the right shoulder of Clippers goalie Lexi Wiles.

“We talked about a couple different things. Going high was definitely one of them. We executed that pretty well,” Talbot said. “That pass from Lucy, she put it in the perfect spot. Being on her line is really good.”

While Cheverus was starting to buzz around the Clippers net with more consistency, Yarmouth/Freeport had trouble sustaining offensive pressure throughout the game,

“The puck wasn’t bouncing our way tonight. You kind of make your own puck luck, and Cheverus was all over us from the start,” Yarmouth/Freeport Coach Dave Intraversato said. “We had trouble getting stick to stick passes, and they were all over the place.”

Rousseau’s message to his team in the short break between the first and second periods was simple. Keep doing what you’re doing.

“We believe we’re the best second period team in the state. We practiced really hard with the shorter change, getting out, possessing the puck. We played a really good first period. We felt it was going to break our way,” he said.

Yarmouth/Freeport did have two strong chances to score in the second period, but each was turned away by Cheverus goalie Ella Lemieux. First, with just eight minutes to play in the period, Sophie Smith broke in alone on Lemieux, who extended her left pad to make the save. Four minutes later, Adelaide Strout’s breakaway was denied when Lemieux got her glove up, deflecting the puck over the net.

“Every time we have ever needed Ella Lemieux, she does Ella Lemieux things. How is that humble, quiet, soft spoken girl maybe the best player in the state? She gives us a lot of confidence,” Rousseau said.

Lemieux said she was nervous with each breakaway, but also knew she was ready.

“I was ready to get a shot, but my team did such a good job keeping it in our offensive zone,” Lemieux said.

Lucy Johnson’s power-play goal 49 seconds into the third period, another shot high on Wiles, extended the lead to 3-0. The Stags capped the scoring at 3:26 when Rousseau scored with an assist from Talbot, who factored into all four goals.

Lemieux made 14 saves for the shutout, her seventh of the season. Wiles stopped 18 shots for the Clippers.

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