BANGOR, Maine — Last season, the Bangor High School boys hockey team reached the state Class A championship game for the first time in program history dating back to the 1985-86 season.
The Rams, who lost to Lewiston in the state final 5-0, were hit hard by graduation but head coach Quinn Paradis and his players feel they can eventually develop into a contender as they mature together.
“We’re a lot different. We aren’t as deep as usual so it’s going to require some guys to step up,” said senior left wing and tri-captain Marc-Andre Perron. “Everyone has to be pretty consistent.”
Perron said it may take awhile for the Rams to gel.
“Once we get into the midpoint of the season where everyone is confident and we’ve found out what works, that’s when we’re going to heat up and, hopefully, make a big run,” he said.
The Rams were particularly decimated on defense with the loss of Preston Henry, Zachary Lindquist, Richie Trott and Jackson Guimond. And senior tri-captain Jake Biberstein is sidelined until at least next month due to illness.
Lindquist transferred to Brewer.
Dependable junior James Schureman is the only returning defenseman who played significant minutes last season along with Biberstein. Junior Ryan Beck swung between varsity and jayvee and junior Preston Karam was a forward who has been moved back to defense. His cousin, Caden Karam, is one of two freshmen in the five-man rotation on the blue line along with Jack Fitzgerald.
“We have a lot of defensemen who don’t normally play defense. So they don’t have a lot of experience but they’ve been doing their jobs. They’ve been two-way players and have been doing great,” said senior center and tri-captain Andrew Slocum.
Paradis agreed.
“They’re playing very well considering how young they are and the lack of varsity games they’ve played in. They’ve taken the task on very well,” said Paradis.
Uriah Merchant and Noah Wilcox are two freshman defensemen who add depth.
The Rams will have a formidable top line with junior Chase Caron centering for Perron and right wing Phillip Moscone, another junior.
Perron had a team-leading 13 goals last season including a hat trick in the semifinal win over Portland/South Portland/Deering/Waynflete. He also had an assist in that game.
Caron was tied for third in the team in goals with eight.
But 10-goal scorer Ty Walker and 8-goal producers Miles Randall and Michael Moscone have graduated.
Perron and Caron have already scored this season in Bangor’s first two games.
Beck has the other goal.
Slocum will center the second line with senior Will Pelc, junior Zachary Cota and freshman Mason Bond sharing the two wing spots.
Senior Aidan Lander, juniors Raphia Mattsen and Landon Rockwell and sophomore Ben McKay vying for playing time on the third line.
“Once we get going, goal scoring will be the strength of our team,” said Paradis. “We have some great forwards and we just have to find a way to generate a little more offense. We’ve played two great teams so far. We have a lot of gaps between games to work on things.”
Slocum sees the team making progress.
“We’ve been getting more pucks to the net than we did in the preseason and we’ve been crashing the net more. We’ve got to get to those dirty rebounds and score some gritty goals,” said Slocum.
Junior Cody McCue returns in goal and he is backed up by junior Miles Worcester and freshman Thomas Fournier.
McCue’s goaltending partner, Cole Fernald has transferred to Brewer.
“Cody has been a big puzzle piece for us. We’re going to need to support him,” said Perron.
The Rams have lost their first two games, 7-1 to Falmouth and 3-2 to Scarborough, but Paradis said his team made “serious progress” from the Falmouth game to the Scarborough contest.
“A lot of good things happened. We’re heading in the right direction,” said Paradis.
Perron said reaching the state final gave the returning players motivation for this season.
“Once we lost to Lewiston, everybody had a chip on their shoulders,” said Perron. “In the offseason, everyone played well in travel hockey with expectations to play well this season.”
“That gave us some confidence,” said Biberstein. “”We’re very skilled and hard-working and we have some great newcomers. And we’re close as a group.”
Paradis said the objective is to be playing their best hockey at the end of the season and take that into the playoffs.
“Anyone can beat anyone else on a given night,” said Paradis. “We’re a hard-working team. Since we don’t have the depth we had in the past, we have to play a more disciplined style of hockey.
“We have to stay out of the penalty box and not get out of position where we wind up chasing people from behind all the time,” said the veteran coach, who is in his 13th year behind the Rams bench.
The Rams will host the South Portland/Portland/Deering/Waynflete co-op team on Saturday at noon.
