ORONO, Maine — Bangor High School senior right wing Marc-Andre Perron had never scored a goal in a Fill-the-Alfond game against arch-rival Brewer and he wanted that to change in his last shot at it on Friday night.
“I wanted to go out with a couple of goals and a (victory),” said Perron, who did just that.
The son of the late former UMaine hockey captain Guy Perron had a four-point night with two goals and two assists to lead the Class A Rams to a 6-2 victory over the Class B Witches in front of a sizable and enthusiastic crowd at the Alfond Arena in Orono.
“I’ll take it,” grinned Perron.
“We talked about containing him,” said Brewer coach Denis Collins. “He’s very slippery in the corners and when he comes out to a dangerous position at the hash marks, his shot is amazing.”
Perron’s linemates, junior center Chase Caron and junior left wing Phillip Moscone, each had a goal and an assist and senior center Andrew Slocum and senior left wing Will Pelc had the other goals as Bangor improved to 2-2.
Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said the line of Perron, Caron and Moscone is “clicking right now and that’s what we need.”
Perron and Caron came into the game leading the Rams in scoring as Perron had three goals and three assists for six points and Caron had five points on three goals and two assists.
Moscone had two assists on the season.
“We’re moving on all cylinders right now,” said Caron.
Perron pointed out that he and Caron were linemates last season.
“And I played with Phillip a little bit in travel (hockey) so that kind of boosted our chemistry. (Our line) started off slow but we’re really starting to get going. Right now, the passing is great. We’re moving it well,” said Perron who added that if they can improve their positioning, they will be able to create a lot of turnovers and “score a lot more goals.”
Freshman defenseman Caden Karam had two assists and junior left wing Zachary Cota and junior defenseman James Schureman each had one assist.
Brewer lost its fourth in a row and is now 1-4.
Senior defenseman James Aremenia and sophomore wing Baylon Cram scored their first goals of the season for the Witches with junior Joshua Hitchings earning an assist.
Bangor junior goalie Cody McCue finished with 19 saves on 21 shots before junior Miles Worcester came on late in the third period and stopped the only two shots he faced.
Senior Calvin Grass made 23 saves for the Witches.
Pelc scored what proved to be the game-winner with 2:19 left in the second period. It was his first goal of the season and broke a 2-2 tie.
“Chase fed me down in the corner. I worked it to the front of the net and just wanted to get a shot on net,” said Perron. “I knew we had bodies (in front). I knew rebounds were going to be key tonight so I decided to throw it on net and Will was right there and roofed (the rebound). It was a good finish.”
Just 1:44 later and with only 35 seconds left in the period, Caron deflected Perron’s wrist shot past Grass.
The Witches had a chance to slice into the Bangor lead in the third period when they went on the power play but, instead, the Rams received a shorthanded goal from Moscone which all but sewed up the win.
Karam fed the puck to Slocum who raced down the left wing on a two-on-one with Moscone.
Slocum then fed a perfect pass over to Moscone, who one-timed it into the half-empty net.
Slocum capped the scoring with a 10-foot wrist shot between Grass’ pads with 3:34 remaining. It was his first of the season.
The speedy Armenia opened the scoring with a power play goal off his scintillating rush down the right wing. He broke around a Ram defenseman, broke in on the right wing side and roofed a short wrist shot over McCue’s glove.
Perron tied it with 52 seconds remaining in the first period when he backhanded a James Schureman rebound past Grass.
Perron made it 2-1 3:01 into the middle period when he was set up nicely by Moscone and simply had to chip the puck past Grass.
Cram tied it 5:26 later as Hitchings’ shot from the point deflected off him and past McCue.
Pelc broke the tie 4:14 later.
“It was a great win for us,” said Paradis.
“We didn’t play up to our potential,” said Collins. “We made a few mistakes and they picked up on it. Bangor played well.”
