It is always a challenge to beat a team three times in a season and that’s what the Bangor High School boys hockey team is looking to do when it visits Kents Hill for a Class A quarterfinal on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
Both teams are 10-7-1.
Bangor is the fifth seed while Kents Hill finished fourth in the statewide Class A standings.
Bangor won both meetings, 5-4 at Kents Hill on Jan. 8 and 5-2 at Sawyer Arena in Bangor on Feb. 3.
The Bangor Rams come into the game having gone 4-2-1 in its last seven regular season games while the Huskies have won three of their last four including impressive season-ending back-to-back wins over second seed Lewiston, 6-3, and top seed Falmouth, 5-0.
Lewiston, 13-5, was scheduled to play seventh seed Marshwood of Eliot, 11-7, in a Thursday night quarterfinal. Traip Academy of Kittery, Sanford and Noble High of North Berwick also supply players to Marshwood.
Falmouth, 18-3, is facing off against eighth seed St. Dom’s of Auburn, 8-9-1, on Friday night at 7:20 and No. 3 Thornton Academy of Saco, 14-3-1, is taking on No. 6 Windham-Westbrook-Bonny Eagle, 11-7, on Saturday at 5:45.
The semifinals and state championship game will be held at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. The semis are next Tuesday night with the Class A state championship game set for a 1 p.m. puck drop on Saturday, March 8.
The B state final will be held before it at 10:30 a.m.
Bangor reached the state championship game for the first time in program history a year ago, beating Marshwood and Portland in the playoffs before losing to Lewiston in the final 5-0.
Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said his team has played “pretty well” of late and has gotten healthy.
“We had some sickness and injuries but we’re finally back 100 percent,” said Paradis.
Paradis said Kents Hill is “explosive offensively” and has a couple of dynamic players with excellent speed.
“We’re going to have to slow them down,” he said.
Offensively, Paradis is hoping his team can generate rush chances off good breakout passes, and also create opportunities on the forecheck by cycling effectively and “getting a lot of pucks to the net.”
Kents Hill’s Alex Gadbois is the second-leading goal scorer in Class A with 26 goals and he is third in points with 41.
Bangor High’s Chase Caron is fifth in points with 36 and sixth in goals with 16 and his linemate, right wing Marc-Andre Perron, is eighth in points with 31 and tied for ninth in goals with 14.
Kents Hill has two other players with at least 20 points in Antoine Morin, who has 22 on nine goals and 13 assists, and Mathis Moreau, who has 10 goals and 10 assists.
Nathan Roy and Alex Wang each have seven goals and eight assists for the Huskies.
Complementing Caron and Perron have been Andrew Slocum (8 goals, 11 assists), Phillip Moscone (8 & 9) and Preston Karam (9 & 6).
Moscone is the left wing on the line with Perron and Caron.
Cody McCue will be between the pipes for Bangor. He is 9-6-1 with a 3.41 goals-against average and a .851 save percentage. He will be opposed by either Milan Angyalfi (5-4-1, 3.41, .870) or Gabe Robinson (4-3, 2.86, .886).
