BANGOR, Maine — Kyle Farley scored early and Parker Sanderson and Jordan Tracy scored often as the Bangor High School Rams skated to an 8-2 high school hockey victory over Lawrence of Fairfield on Saturday night at Sawyer Arena.
The Rams played under the direction of assistant coach Quinn Paradis in place of head coach Denis Collins as Bangor officials investigate an incident reportedly involving the lack of bathroom breaks during a bus trip to Presque Isle and back on Tuesday.
“They were fired up and ready to play,” said Paradis of the Rams after the game.
Farley scored seven seconds into the power play and 1 minute, 51 seconds into the first period with an assist from Tracy to put the Rams (3-0 in Eastern Maine Class A) ahead for good against the Bulldogs (1-2 in East B).
“That was my first of the season,” said the junior defenseman. “It felt good to get [the scoring] started.”
“The puck was just sitting there [to the left of Lawrence goalie Kyle McLain],” added Farley. “I just pinched it and put it in. The goalie left the corner open.”
Sam Kenney, with assists from Sanderson and Farley, added a near carbon-copy goal 18 seconds later to put the undermanned Bulldogs back on their heels.
“We wanted to get on the board first,” said Paradis of the Rams’ game plan.
Lawrence coach Ted Fabian also would have liked a good start.
“Coming out in the first period…. We didn’t come out strong,” said Fabian after taking a moment to consider his response.
“Then they scored a few quick ones and that set us back,” he added.
After that the Rams’ used their extra forward lines and defensive tandems to try to wear out Lawrence.
“We played our depth [from a 22-player roster] and hoped to run ’em down a bit,” said Paradis.
Fabian, with only 16 players, has dealt with small numbers at each game this year. Saturday night, only 13 Bulldogs were suited, and Fabian was almost happy.
“That’s the most I’ve rostered all year,” he said.
Junior defenseman Cam Dickson and senior forward Zeb Tuell added two more first-period goals with Dickson scoring unassisted and Tuell being set up by Nate Bach.
In the second period, Tracy scored shorthanded twice on the same shift. In both cases Sanderson skated behind the net from the left side and came out the right up into the center while Tracy floated over toward the left post.
Sanderson fed him sharp passes both times and Tracy buried them behind McLain.
“The goalie was leaning hard [to the near post],” said Sanderson, a senior forward. “Jordie was at the back post, and that was the easiest option.”
“Those shorthanded goals pumped us up,” said Paradis. “They’ve been very good playing shorthanded together.”
After assisting on three goals, Sanderson posted his first score to push the lead to 7-0 after two periods.
A big reason Bangor was so strong on offense was because the Ram defensemen were able to keep the puck in or near their offensive end.
“The defense did a great job of regrouping the puck,” said Sanderson.
Lawrence scored twice in the first five minutes of the third period on goals by Adam Littlefield and Andrew Carter to cut Bangor’s lead to 7-2.
“We play so much offense, [Bangor goalie Rye Powell] hasn’t been tested the last couple of games,” said Paradis.
The Ram defense stiffened again and kept the Bulldogs off the board the remainder of the game.
Sanderson added a power-play goal in the third for the final score of the game.
Bangor goalies Powell and Joe Delp combined to make eight saves on 10 shots. Lawrence’s Kyle McLain faced considerably more shots as he made 55 saves on 63 shots on goal.
I hope that assistant coach Paradis allowed his players to go the bathroom during the game if need be. It would be wonderful to see suspended coach Collins come down with “the runs” and find the only bathroom(s) locked.
I am sure coach Paradis allowed the kids to use the bathroom and I am quite sure coach Paradis would have liked it if coach Collins could have been there.
If, according to MikeH22, Coach Collins was apparently lax about enforcing drinking but fanatical about prohibiting bathroom stops, he is, at the least, strange in his professional behavior. I still hope that he never gets to use the bathroom anywhere if he returns to coach the team during all future games. Surely that’s only fair.
As much as I do not approve of teenage drinking and drug use at any age, the reality is that most if not all teenagers experiment with alcohol and or drugs at some point. If the so called facts I heard about this incident are true, then the difference between what these kids did, and what most of us did as teenagers, were most of them all stayed the night and didn’t drive home, so as much as I might not approve of what they did the previous night I do think there has been huge progress made with teenage drinking and driving. As far as the penalties handed down to these kids it is easy to put it all on the coach, but I think you would find out that there were a few others involved in making the decision, like the principal, AD, and hopefully parents of kids involved, so putting it all on the coach is almost as ridiculous as BDN running the story of Bus investigation with out any facts or really even knowing what is being investigated.
Let’s be honest: if Coach Collins is a good Republican–like Betsy Webb and Bob Lucy and the other powerbrokers who control the Bangor School System–he’ll come out fine. But if, God forbid, he’s a Democrat, he might be in some trouble. After all, with the GOP having lost control of the Maine legislature in November, and with the defeat of then School Com. member Nichi Farnum, the GOP has to do what it can to control public policy and personnel issues. If you think this is a joke, the joke is on you!
I have no idea what political party Webb, Lucy, and Collins belong to and I have no interest into turning this into a political debate so if the joke is on me I guess it is what it is. It’s been nice swapping comments with you but it is time for me to agree to disagree
No point in prolonging this, but what I said about Webb, Lucy, Farnum, and the Maine GOP is quite true. More important, of course, is to resolve the hockey coaching matter–and, of course, the handsome pay being showered on Lucy for months now by those of us who are Bangor taxpayers.
Go the bathroom during the game?
Congrats to this team on the win. Collins ego might be bruised abit. I’d be happy to stand in front of a bathroom door he was trying to get in!!
I am sure Collins is very proud of the hockey team and the coaching staff for the win tonight. You obviously know nothing about coach Collins.
I know plenty about Collins. My facts are right from coach Collins mouth on my voice mail. That I let many listen to. Perhaps my dates are off either last year or year before many student athletes were caught drinking and some were from this hockey team and had a 2 game suspension. Yet code of conduct says zero tolerance. Dennis made sure they came right back on the team. There is another more serious Dennis admitted to seeing at a bhs football game yet chose to turn the other cheek. That incident he mentioned at the parent meeting prior to the start of that season. Give the guy credit on his on ice coaching. But after that well u can fill in the blanks
You can sit back and put all the blame on Coach Collins, but is there anything going to be done with the boys that went the bathroom in the bottles or bucket? If that child had told his coach that he absolutely couldn’t wait there is no doubt that bus would have stopped. They are old enough to know better. How many times have we said to our children “you better go the bathroom before we leave because we aren’t stopping”. As far as the win, I am quite certain that the team played the same plays they have been all based on Coach Collins philosophy thats what an assistant coach does. That win had nothing to do with Collins not being there. As far as the drinking mishap, the coach has to follow the school in their decision. That decision is based on the Principal and the AD. The basketball players, cheerleaders, and whatever else sports these children were suspended all the same. Are you going to put all the blame on those other coaches as well for letting them back on the team? I don’t think all your facts are right.
You can sit back and put all the blame on Coach Collins, but is there anything going to be done with the boys that went the bathroom in the bottles or bucket? If that child had told his coach that he absolutely couldn’t wait there is no doubt that bus would have stopped. They are old enough to know better. How many times have we said to our children “you better go the bathroom before we leave because we aren’t stopping”. I am quite certain that the team played the same plays they have been all based on Coach Collins philosophy thats what an assistant coach does. That win had nothing to do with Collins not being there. As far as the drinking mishap, the coach has to follow the school in their decision. That decision is based on the Principal and the AD. The basketball players, cheerleaders, and whatever else sports these children were suspended all the same. Are you going to put all the blame on those other coaches as well for letting them back on the team?