BANGOR, Maine — Trevor DeLaite is looking forward to the upcoming high school hockey season.
DeLaite, an Eastern Maine Class A first team selection a year ago, will be hanging up his skates for good after the season to take the mound for the University of Maine’s baseball team beginning next fall.
He would like his last hockey season with the Bangor Rams to be memorable.
“It’s definitely going to be a fun year,” said DeLaite, who had 11 goals and 10 assists a year ago and will be one of the key returning forwards along with Cam Cota. “We lost some good players, but we have some good young players coming in. We’re going to have to outwork teams,”
“We’re going to have to be a little more creative and grind it out,” said senior Ben Crichton, who will headline the defense corps with Nick Cowperthwaite.
“We lost a lot of goals and we’re going to be young. But we’ll be very competitive,” said Bangor coach Quinn Paradis, whose Rams went 13-7 last year and open against Poland/Gray-New Gloucester/Oak Hill at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Sawyer Arena in Bangor.
Goalie Derek Fournier (2.1 goals-against average, .922 save percentage) and Crichton (7 & 12) also were first team selections, and Crichton called Fournier “the best goalie in the state.”
Lewiston (14-6-1 last year), St. Dominic of Auburn (17-3-1) and Bangor have been the top teams in Eastern Maine Class A of late, but heavy graduation losses from Bangor and St. Dom’s leaves Lewiston as the clear-cut favorite in the East, which is now Class A North.
“The nucleus of our team is back, we’ve added two transfers, and we have a talented group of freshmen,” said Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau. “We definitely have a lot of depth. We’ll have three good lines, we’ve got seven to eight [reliable] defensemen, and both goalies are back.”
Transfers Sam Story (St. Dom’s) and Brad McLellan (North Yarmouth Academy) will fortify a team that already includes four All-Eastern Maine first-teamers in forwards Jeromey Rancourt (16 & 12), Brandon Croteau (11 & 13) and Kyle Morin (11 & 7) along with defenseman Jon Sturgis (6 & 2).
Defending two-time regional champ St. Dom’s has a new coach in Bob Parker and will build around All-Eastern Maine first-teamer Austin Roy (11 & 13) and second-teamers defenseman Gavin Bates (1 & 3) and goalie Ridge Servidio (2.09, .906).
Lawrence-Skowhegan’s Ted Fabian, who went 11-7-1 and was the co-coach of the year along with Belleau, will have first-team defenseman Sam Haver (4 & 8) back, and Edward Little of Auburn (10-10) will return first-teamers Ben Steele (2 & 11), a defenseman, and goalie Devin Dumont (2.96, .886).
In Class B, defending two-time state champ Messalonskee of Oakland will be the favorite, although the region’s coaches feel Waterville will pose a strong threat to dethrone the Eagles in Class B North.
“We have our whole team back, but Messalonskee is always the team to beat,” said Waterville coach Dennis Martin. “They only lost their goalie and one forward.”
Messalonskee returns the Eastern Maine Class B Player of the Year in Jared Cunningham (32 & 47) and his linemate Brandon Nale (37 & 41) along with standout defenseman Dylan Burton, who joined them on the all-league first team.
Coach Joe Hague said he has 15 players who have been a part of two state championships and a 41-1 record during that span.
Steady Sam Bell will help Burton anchor the blue line, but the graduation of first-team goalie Elija Tuell means they will have a freshman in goal in either Eli Michaud or Amber Kochaver.
Hague will have Jack Moore on the top line with Cunningham and Nale and said he is excited about the goal-scoring potential of his second line, which will feature twins Dustin and Dylan Brown with Devin Pickett.
Hague feels Waterville (13-5-1) will be a serious challenger, and he also has heard good things about Old Town-Orono (8-9-1). He added that Winslow (14-7) and Brewer (9-8-3) should also be in the hunt thanks to the play of their goalies, Andrew Beals and Tyler Friel, respectively.
The division also gains a prominent newcomer in Camden Hills, a perennial title contender in Western B that went 14-5 a year ago.
Martin feels his team could be his best since the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons when his Panthers were the Class A state champion and runner-up, respectively.
First-teamer Nick Denis along with Michael Oliveira, Justin Wentworth, Jackson Aldrich and Cody Pellerin will supply Martin with plenty of firepower up front; All-league second team defensemen Andrew Roderigue and Matthew Jolicoeur are influential on the blue line; and goalies Logan Kearney and Nathan Pinnette have experience.
“We had eight kids with 20 or more points last year,” pointed out Martin, the region’s coach of the year.
Winslow features top-shelf forwards Jacob Trask and Jimmy Fowler along with goalie Beals.
Second-year Brewer coach Lance Ingerson expects his Witches to be better.
“We should be very competitive,” said Ingerson, whose Witches will be led by forwards Dylan Severance, Jack Watkins and Zach Duncan along with defensemen Trey Wood and Jack Schroder and goalie Friel.
Old Town-Orono coach Denis Collins expects his team to finish “well over .500” thanks to the return from injury of talented forwards Austin Sheehan and Matt Fowler.
All-Rookie Team pick Jacob Dubay, Nick Boutin and Ben Allan-Rahill also will be expected to put the puck in the net, and Austin Soucy, Jacob Gallon and Lucas Shorette will key the defense corps in front of seasoned goalie Chase Albert.
John Bapst coach Andy Stephenson feels his team has potential to improve on last year’s 10-7-2 mark behind all-league third-team forward Tyler Wheeler, all-rookie defenseman Drew Gardner and forwards Nate Reese, Kodi Legassie and converted defenseman Logan Cyr-Ellis. Ben Lee and Cam Dyer head up the defense corps. Thomas Carmack and Dan Sprague will vie for the goaltending job left by the departure of workhorse Sam Lander.
Presque Isle coach Carl Flynn is excited to welcome a “really talented freshman class” to complement forwards Cooper Madore and Craig Schiff and his daughter, goalie Jillian Flynn, an All-Eastern Maine B second-teamer. Forwards Thomas Patenaude, Jake Stevens, Bailey York and Jaren Winger highlight the freshman class.
Camden Hills is led by veteran goalie Jet Magri, forwards Nick Czuchra, James Orne, Austin Gallant, Chase Matteo and Jonah Cameron.
Hampden Academy, under first-year coach Eric MacDonald, will be guided by All-Rookie team goalie Cole Benner along with Marc Thibodeau.
Youthful Houlton-Hodgdon, winless a year ago, adds players from Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook and Katahdin of Stacyville to its co-op team and should be improved. Josh Malone is a standout up front.