LEWISTON — Matt Swan faced shot after shot early in the first period of an Eastern Maine Class A semifinal boys hockey game Saturday afternoon. And in the early going, the Cony senior goalie stopped shot after shot against Lewiston.

The Blue Devils kept coming and Swan could only do so much.

Swan stopped 45 shots, but top-ranked Lewiston still put on an impressive offensive display, beating the Rams 9-0 to advance to the Eastern A final at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“He played very well,” Cony coach Chad Foye said of Swan. “We haven’t gone against a team that moved the puck like that all year. That is kind of the fault where your scheduling kind of hurts you. We won some games, but it would have helped to play some teams like that.”

No. 4 Cony, which earned its first playoff win since 2002 when it beat Maranacook/Hall-Dale/Winthrop in the quarterfinals, ends the season 15-5-0. The only team in the semifinals the Rams played in the regular season was No. 2 Bangor, which beat Cony 5-2 on Feb. 13.

No. 1 Lewiston improves to 14-4-1 and advances to play St. Dominic, which beat Bangor 2-1 in overtime in the other semifinal, in the Eastern A final Tuesday night.

Swan was under pressure from the start and played well, stopping 24 shots in the first period, but the Blue Devils were relentless. Lewiston broke through 8:25 into the first when Kyle Lemelin made a nice crossing pass to Devon Beland, who tucked the puck past Swan for a 1-0 lead.

The Blue Devils broke it open with goals seven seconds apart about two minutes later. Stefan Vallee made it 2-0 when he stuffed in a rebound and Desmond Gagne pushed it to 3-0 on the ensuing faceoff, beating Swan on a breakaway 8:46 into the period.

“That was certainly a bonus,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said of his team’s quick start. “We knew Swan was a legit goaltender.

“Our game plan was to get a lot of pucks to the net, a lot of rubber to the net. We took 28 shots in the first period.”

The Devils took 12 more shots in the second period and pushed their lead to 5-0 when Jake Bergeron’s shot trickled through Swan at 8:22.

“They are a great team and they pass the puck well,” Swan said. “They hustle, they are fast, and they played like the one seed.”

Lemelin, Matt Poulin and Evan Gosselin scored in the third for Lewiston.

The loss ends a turnaround season for the Rams, who won just four games last season.

“The kids knew me because I coached at the school and they bought into what we were trying to do right away,” said Foye, who returned to the Cony bench this season. He coached at the school from 2000-07.

“I’m just glad we put Cony hockey back on the map,” Swan said.

Scott Martin — 621-5618

smartin@centralmaine.com