Sunday, March 12, 2006
"It´s just awesome, especially in my last year playing in the state game, and being able to help out my team and get a big goal ... " Johnson said. "It´s just all I wanted to do.
"Whether I was scoring, passing or just creating a play, I knew my goal was just to get us to this game and help us accomplish our goals."
During the season, Johnson played despite a severe injury to his right shoulder, wearing a protective brace. He also played for the first time in his life on a line without best friend Arthur.
Still, Johnson became a finalist for the Travis Roy Award, given to the top Class A senior hockey player in the state. More importantly, he helped the Stags return to the state final.
"My goal was to wait to the end, play it out and hopefully bring home the state title," said Johnson, who put off surgery until after the season. "I needed to help my team."
Johnson´s final goal for Cheverus was his most resounding.
"I saw him wide open in front of the net and gave him a backhand right there," Arthur said of the goal, which came late in the first period with the Stags on a five-on-three advantage. "He was able to finish it, and it was such a great goal."
Johnson´s goal also was special for Cheverus Coach Jack Lowry.
"That brought me back to when Johnson and Arthur were freshmen in high school; they were out on the ice and I didn´t really know who they were," Lowry said. "I watched them in a couple practices and asked, ´Who are these guys?´
"But you knew right from the first practice that they were going to be something special."
Cheverus denied Lewiston its 21st state title. The Blue Devils last won in 2002 and lost to Cheverus 5-2 in last year´s final.
Lewiston tested goalie Casey Cox early and took a 1-0 lead on Dan Cloutier´s goal at 6:22 of the first period. Cloutier tipped Zack Blauvelt´s shot from the right point past Cox, who made 20 saves.
"We had our chances in the first five minutes to win the game and we didn´t bury them," Lewiston Coach Norm Gagne said.
The Stags also had to contend with goalie Brian Nason, who stopped 39 shots and seemed impenetrable until Arthur tied the game at 1-1 on a breakaway at 10:04 of the first.
"He kept us in the game, with no questions," Gagne said of Nason. "But we just didn´t help him. We didn´t help him when we needed to. I felt we could have done that in the first period, got ourselves off to a good start.
"We got the first goal and I thought we could have got a couple more and that would have changed the whole complexion of the game."
When it seemed the momentum was shifting in Lewiston´s favor, penalties swung it the other way. The Devils had 11 penalties and allowed two power-play goals: Johnson´s at 13:34 of the first and Paul Morrison´s with 16 seconds left in the second.
"The two five-on-three goals, that was the difference in the game," said Gagne.
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be contacted at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com