The Presque Isle High School Wildcats won their first Eastern Maine Class B hockey championship in the 19-year history of their program last season and they have a solid nucleus returning.
But they will have their hands full, especially since the Brewer Witches and the Lawrence Bulldogs of Fairfield have dropped from Class A to Class B this season.
Gardiner has been moved to Western Maine B and there are three new coaches in Eastern B: Dave Shedd takes over for Bill Schwarz in Brewer; Phil Parsons replaces Mark Walsh at Hampden Academy and Greg Stone takes over for EM B Coach of the Year Gene Fadrigon at John Bapst.
“Brewer has to be the favorite,” said 15-year Orono coach Greg Hirsch. “They had a great team in Class A last year and although they lost some great players, they still have some great players left.
“Presque Isle is the defending champ and they have Brennen Shaw back who is, arguably, the best player in the league. They also have a good supporting cast. Lawrence is deep. They’ve got some speed and a handful of football players who are great athletes,” added Hirsch who also feels Winslow will be in the hunt.
Shaw, who had 30 goals and 30 assists last season, thinks his team is going to be “real good.
“Our whole defense is back and Connor [brother Connor Shaw] and Caleb Buck will be on my line and they’ve stepped it up. And our second line is just as good,” said Shaw who also noted that they will have a stellar goaltender in Josh MacFarline who capped a superb season with 47 saves in the 5-1 loss to Greely in the state title game.
Mitchell Davis (13 goals, 19 assists) and Isaac Lajoie (10 & 13) will play on the second line with Zac Campbell (5 & 10). Jason Martin (5 & 13) and Steve Ford (6 & 10) headline the defense corps with veterans Jacob Buck and Jordan Hallett.
Shaw and Ford were All-EM B second-teamers last year.
Brewer suffered significant losses like Travis Roy Award finalist Dylan Fitzpatrick (27 & 24) and all but one defenseman.
But four-year starting goalie Eric White is considered “one of the best in the state” by Shedd and his presence enables them to “attack very aggressively” in the offensive zone.
Chris Lopez (3 & 12) is the only returning defenseman but Shedd has confidence that JV players like Garret Gonzales Jake Valley and Michael Shedd will develop into solid blue-liners.
Nick Risser (14 & 10), Evan Nadeau (3 & 12), Tyler White (9 goals) and Jacob Chapman will be among the best forwards in B and the Witches have added skillful transfer Alec Pacheco.
Lawrence coach Dave Richard has three mobile defensemen in Matt Woodbury (12 & 9) , Jeshua Dearborn (10 & 6) and J.J. Hutchinson who are “all converted forwards that do a lot of things very well.”
The top returning forwards are centers Devan Belanger (18 & 9) and Justin Boudreau.
Unproven sophomore Brad MacKenzie will be the goalie.
Houlton-Hodgdon has just one experienced defenseman in Jake Peabody but they do have a top-notch goalie in Malik Abouleish and six junior forwards in Logan Holmes, Ben Ward, Ian Gervais, Dylan Gard, Cody Briggs and Nick Chase on their top two lines.
“We’re a work in progress,” said Blackhawks coach Joel Trickey.
Orono has just three seniors and 11 freshmen among its 22 players.
“We’re real young but the upside is they’re all incredibly coachable,” said Hirsch who expects that coachability to lead to rapid development.
Starting goalie Mike Brown, defenseman Conor McKaig and center Matt Cloutier headline the freshman class. Seniors Kyle Cleary and Jake Doing will supply consistency and efficiency on the blue line and Tannar Francis, Dan Perry, Brewster Cherkis and Cloutier will lead the score-by-committee attack.
Old Town coach Brett Hale has 18 players, the highest number in his three years, including quality returnees like speedy center Cody Cross; twin defensemen David and Peter Wilcox along with fellow blue-liner Zac Madden. Hale also has gifted senior center Tyler Vandez and impact freshmen Trevor Francis and Nic Nadeau, both wingers, and goalie Patrick Spaulding.
Parsons’ Broncos have just two seniors but they have an experienced goalie in Jacob Ward and Parsons feels he has “five solid defensemen” led by juniors Nate Baker and Charlie Rawcliffe. Seniors Nick Pease and Cody McAllister and sophomores Kalvin Costa-Vogel, Marc Albert and Cooper Williams will supply him with two quality lines.
Stone was Orono’s first head coach in 1984 and returns to guide the Crusaders, who are in a rebuilding mode.
“We’ll get better. We only have a few kids who have played at the varsity level. But we obviously have a good goaltender in Derek Duff who will keep us in a lot of games,” said the 63-year-old Stone. Duff was EM B’s Player of the Year.
Joey Thompson, Matt Youngblood and Michael Keim will play important roles on the blue line with Derek Antworth, Joey Pate, Nick Doucette, Jake Leonard and Maggie Lynn expected to produce goals.
Corey Lessard’s Winslow Black Raiders have veteran talent in all areas including goalie Jesse Little; defensemen Charlie Kriegel and Eric Crawley and prolific point-producers Todd Brow, an EM second teamer, Devon Guptill and Justin Bouchard.