Brewer vs. Orono highlights `B’ playoffs

It has been awhile since the Orono High School Red Riot hockey team has beaten the Brewer High Witches. They would like nothing better than to end a five-game losing streak against Brewer in Wednesday night’s Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal at the Sockalexis Memorial Ice Arena on Indian Island.

The 12-7 Witches are the third seed and Orono, 7-11, is the sixth seed. The two will play at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. In the other Wednesday quarterfinal, 9-8 Gardiner, the fourth seed, will host 11-7 Lawrence of Fairfield, the fifth seed, in a 7:50 p.m. game at Augusta’s Kennebec Ice Arena.

Top-seeded Old Town, 17-1, will take on the Gardiner-Lawrence winner in one semifinal on Friday at the University of Maine’s Alfond Arena, with No. 2 Winslow, 14-3, facing the Brewer-Orono winner in the other Alfond semi. The semifinal games are scheduled for 5 and 7:30 p.m. but the order hasn’t been decided.

In Wednesday’s Western Maine B quarterfinals, No. 6 Brunswick, 13-7, will meet No. 3 Thornton Academy of Saco, 12-5-1, and No. 5 Greely of Cumberland Center, 10-8, will meet No. 4 Cheverus of Portland, 12-6. The Greely-Cheverus winner will meet top-seeded Yarmouth, 16-4, and the Brunswick-Thornton victor will play No. 2 York, 12-5-1, in the Friday semis at Lewiston’s Central Maine Civic Center.

The Class B regional championship games will be held on Feb. 26 in Orono (7 p.m.) and Lewiston (7:30) respectively. The state championship game will be held in Lewiston on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 4 p.m.

Class A is a state-wide league this year and quarterfinal play begins Saturday at the rinks of the higher-seeded teams with No. 1 Waterville, 14-3, hosting No. 8 Biddeford, 9-11; No. 2 Lewiston, 14-4, awaiting No. 7 Portland, 9-10-1; No. 3 St. Dom’s of Lewiston entertaining No. 6 Cony of Augusta, 10-8; and No. 4 North Yarmouth Academy, 9-7, hosting No. 5 Edward Little of Auburn, 12-6.

The semifinals will be held at Brunswick’s Bowdoin College on Feb. 25 (5 and 7:30) and the state championship game will be played on Feb. 29 in Lewiston beginning at 8.

Brewer beat Orono twice during the regular season after going 2-0-1 against the Riots a year ago. Brewer beat Orono 7-2 on Dec. 14, and won 4-1 on Jan. 18. The two teams met in the quarterfinals a year ago with Brewer winning 4-1.

“We can’t afford to take anybody lightly. We aren’t that good,” said Brewer Coach Bill Schwarz. “Being as young as we are, you never know what’s going to happen. But if we play well, we should win.

“We can’t afford to give them any breakaways or two-on-ones,” added Schwarz. “We’ve got to forecheck them really well and force turnovers.”

The biggest headache for Orono Coach Larry Berthiaume has been Brewer junior center Chris Munroe, who had five goals and three assists in the two Witch wins. Munroe has 19 goals and 28 assists to lead Brewer in scoring and linemates Darren Beers (20 & 20) and Saulius Vydas (14 & 15) have also hurt the Riots.

“We’ve definitely got to key on Munroe’s line,” said Berthiaume. “We’ve got to avoid the young mistakes we made in our own end that led to goals in their 4-1 win over us and we’ve got to accomplish a few things with the man advantage.”