ORONO, Maine — Bangor High School senior center Alec Coleman-Pray said his job involves going to the net front to screen the opposing goalie and look for opportunities to deflect the puck or swat home a rebound.
He certainly fulfilled his role on Thursday night.
Coleman-Pray scored a pair of goals off deflections, including a vital clinching goal with 2:20 left, to lead Bangor to a 5-2 victory over archrival Brewer in the annual Fill the Alfond game before a sizeable and energetic crowd at Alfond Arena.
Class A Bangor improved to 11-4 while Class B Brewer fell to 8-7-2.
Sophomore Derek Fournier made 17 saves for the Rams while junior Tyler Friel made 27 for Brewer.
Coleman-Pray’s power-play goal staked Bangor to a 1-0 lead in the first period and Trevor DeLaite’s shorthanded tally made it 2-0 with 4:09 left in the period. But Brewer’s Trey Wood answered 21 seconds later during the same power play.
Jake Fournier expanded the lead to 3-1 on the power play at the 4:45 mark of the middle period but, just seven seconds after Derek Fournier stopped Kyle Spox’s penalty shot, Dylan Severance sliced the lead to 3-2 with a flukey goal.
Bangor’s depth took over in the third period as the Rams had a decided edge in puck possession.
But Friel made a number of quality saves to keep his team within striking distance until Coleman-Pray deflected a Brennan Lane snap shot past Friel.
“It was a great shot by Brennan and I was able to tip it in,” said Coleman-Pray, who was skating across the low slot.
“It was headed for my pad but he tipped it between my legs,” said Friel.
“I saw some people in front of the net so I just tried to put it on net,” said Lane.
Ben Crichton added an empty net goal for the Rams.
Bangor goalie Fournier prevented the Witches from slicing it to 4-3 when he got his shoulder on Gabe Valley’s one-timer from the middle of the slot with two minutes left.
Coleman-Pray opened the scoring at the 2:15 mark when he deflected Owen Trundy’s point shot behind Friel.
Brewer did an effective job playing the body in the first period and limiting Bangor’s time with the puck but a costly turnover resulted in DeLaite’s goal.
DeLaite intercepted an errant cross-ice pass in the high slot, skated in alone on Friel and sailed a 16-footer wrister over his glove.
But Wood responded when he took a pass from Severance at the left point and snapped off a quick wrister that beat the screened Fournier to the blocker side.
Bangor began carrying the play in the second period and Fournier expanded the lead by following his own shot from the high slot that hit teammate Nick Graham before hitting Friel in the chest and bouncing into the crease.
“I just tapped it in,” said Fournier.
Severance cut it to 3-2 when he threw the puck to the net from the extended goal line and it rolled up on the stick of a Bangor defenseman as he tried to take it behind the net and it fluttered into the net.
Jake Fournier came up with a gem of a defensive play in the third period with his team protecting a 3-2 lead when he put on a burst of speed on the backcheck to break up a two-on-one.
“We played real well,” said Jake Fournier. “We had the puck most of the third period. We stepped it up and did a good job on the forecheck.”
“The game was closer than the score,” said Brewer coach Lance Ingerson. “We played well. We got running around a little in the third period and they capitalized on our mistakes.”
Brewer was without its most experienced defenseman in junior Jack Schroder (concussion). Bangor lost Trundy to an arm injury during the game.