It was a memorable night for Lewiston’s Pomerleau family on Wednesday at Sawyer Arena in Bangor.
Sophomore goalie Gabe Pomerleau made 30 saves to post his first career shutout and his senior brother, center Luke Pomerleau, scored the game-winning goal with 3:43 left in overtime as Lewiston High School beat Bangor 1-0 in a Class A contest.
Lewiston improved to 4-4 while Bangor fell to 2-4-1 and has now lost three in a row.
It was the second consecutive shutout loss suffered by the Rams, who were blanked by Thornton Academy of Saco 2-0 on Saturday.
Lewiston was coming off a game in which it scored seven third-period goals to rally past St. Dom’s of Auburn and win 7-5 on Saturday.
It was a terrific goaltending duel between Pomerleau and Bangor senior Liam Doughty, who finished with 26 saves.
Both made a number of great stops, with Doughty coming up big in the first period when his Rams were outshot 12-4 and Pomerleau matching him in the second period when Bangor turned the tables to the tune of a 12-1 shots-on-goal advantage.
Players on both teams also failed to capitalize on some glorious chances when they missed the net.
Bangor was without leading goal scorer Marc-Andre Perron, who was sidelined due to illness.
Junior right wing Dylan Blue set up the game-winner by forcing a turnover behind the Bangor net and passing it out to Pomerleau, who was left unattended in the middle of the low slot.
“It was good pressure by Dylan behind the net, making them make a mistake,” Pomerleau said. “He made a nice pass out front to me. I kicked the puck to my stick and shot. It went blocker-side high.”
Pomerleau’s goal was his seventh of the season.
“It was an all-around great game. It’s really nice to get an overtime game-winner,” Pomerleau added.
His younger brother said the key to his success between the pipes was thinking positively.
“My coaches and teammates had confidence in me so I had to show them what I could do. I felt I squared myself to the shooters and had my glove in front, which is everything I do in practice,” said the younger Pomerleau.
He added that he thought both goalies had great games.
Lewiston coach Jamie King and Bangor coach Quinn Paradis agreed with him.
“Both goalies were outstanding,” King said. “It was a great high school game. There were a lot of chances. Both teams played great.”
Luke Pomerleau had the best chance in the first period when Blue’s shot from the right point was saved by Doughty but the rebound spilled over to him at the far post.
Doughty stretched from post to post to rob him with his blocker.
Bangor had a golden opportunity to break the deadlock with a minute left in the second period when an open Mike McLean was set up at the far post by Chase Caron, who made a nice cross-ice pass to him.
But Pomerleau flashed across with his right pad and made the stop.
“We have to find a way to put the puck in the back of the net,” Paradis said. “All three of our lines had good shots. There were some great scrambles but we couldn’t put the rebounds in.”
Both teams had some good chances in overtime before Luke Pomerleau decided it.
“We played well,” said Bangor senior center and captain McLean. “We had a good forecheck going and our breakouts were better than they have been. We had tons of chances but we just didn’t capitalize. We need to focus on our finishing in practice.”
Both teams play again on Saturday. Bangor squares off against Class B inner-city rival John Bapst, which is 4-1, at 1:10 p.m. at Sawyer Arena while Lewiston is home against 6-2 Edward Little High of Auburn at 7:15 p.m.
