The only thing they didn’t get was a clear winner.

Forty-five minutes of regulation and another eight minutes of overtime solved nothing as the Saints and Blue Devils battled to a 3-3 tie in front of a capacity crowd Saturday at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

“We played a team that everybody knows is loaded with some talent,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “We have a lot of respect for them. For our group of kids to come in here and play the way they did — we certainly had a chance to win that game — I’m really proud of the effort we had from all of our players tonight.”

Caleb Labrie’s second goal of the night tied the game for the third and final time with 4:30 remaining in regulation. Lewiston’s Nick Hawk and St. Dom’s Ridge Servidio stood on their heads in net for their respective teams over the final 12:30 to preserve the tie.

“We come in with high expectations, so a tie is one of those indifferent things, I guess, for us,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “It shows we have to work harder, execute a little better. We had opportunities, we just didn’t finish.”

Playing in front of the biggest crowd of the season, jitters were well-present in the early going. But it was one of Lewiston’s youngest skaters who gave Lewiston a 1-0 lead mid way through the first period.

Freshman Ryan Bossie knocked in a loose puck sitting on the doorstep during Lewiston’s first power play of the game. Following a high-sticking penalty to St. Dom’s Cooper Richard, Bossie buried a rebound in front off a shot from the point by Brendon Croteau. Joey Frechette had the secondary assist on the play.

“We worked hard and did everything we could,” Frechette said. “It turned out as good as we could do. We came out of the game knowing we played a very good game.”

Like they would all game, the Saints (4-1-1) came back and found the equalizer. In the first period it was Adam Poulin. Poulin possessed the puck to the right of the cage and blindly fired it on net past Hawk to tie the game.

The Blue Devils (3-1-1) once again used the power play to their advantage in the second period. Thirty seconds into the power play, Croteau went five-hole on Servidio with a shot from the right circle as Lewiston retook the lead, 2-1.

Labrie erased that deficit with his first goal of the night. He took a cross-crease pass from Dillon Pratt to the left of Hawk and wristed a backhander into the near side of the cage.

Jean-Luc Dostie put Lewiston in front for the third time 2:18 into the third period on a wrap-around, skating behind the cage left to right and stuffing the puck into the net by Servidio.

“We had a game plan,” Belleau said. “The kids are young. Our team is young as a group and the kids executed the game plan well.”

The Saints never led and trailed for 16:53.

“It’s a lot more stressful because you always have to come back,” Labrie said. “You’re always down the whole game so you’re changing your systems. You have to be more protective. It’s a lot easier to be up.”

It was an emotional night for the Saints, who lost a member of their hockey family earlier in the week in a car accident. St. Dom’s hung Casey Cloutier’s jersey on the wall over the team’s bench throughout the night, including both the JV game and girls’ contest. Cloutier was a freshman on the Saints’ JV squad. Both teams observed a moment of silence prior to the start of the game.

“It hits home real quick,” Ouellette said. “You realize how things in life are precious and enjoy moments like tonight to pick you back up.”

Said Labrie: “It’s been rough, even for the guys that didn’t know Casey that well. We’re a small school. We only have 200 kids. Just to lose a member of our hockey family, even if he’s not on the varsity team, it’s a huge loss. He would have been a huge factor in the next couple of years. It hits all of us pretty hard.”