Witches still favored for hockey showdown

Brewer High School was considered the Eastern Maine Class B hockey team to beat this winter by rival coaches. The Witches have lived up to that billing, going 17-3 and earning the top seed in the Eastern B tournament that begins Tuesday.

Brewer Coach Bill Schwarz and Orono Coach Charlie Carroll will get to be observers on Tuesday night. Their teams have received first-round byes. Orono is seeded second with a 12-5-1 record.

Tuesday’s first-round will see No. 6 Presque Isle, 8-8, make its playoff debut against the streaking third-seeded Winslow Black Raiders, 10-6-2, at Winslow’s Sukee Arena beginning at 6:10 and No. 4 Stearns of Millinocket, 13-5-1, playing host to No. 5 Gardiner, 14-5-1, at the University of Maine’s Alfond Arena. Game time is 7:10 p.m.

The Stearns-Gardiner winner will play Brewer on Thursday night and the Winslow-Presque Isle victor will take on Orono. Both games will be played at the Alfond Arena in Orono. Game times are 6:15 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. The team with the longest distance to travel will play first.

Orono coach Charlie Carroll said the Witches are the favorite. He also said that Winslow, which did not have a full-time coach until Lee Bureau was appointed at the beginning of the season, is coming on like gangbusters.

“Winslow is peaking,” said Carroll. “They have a lot of depth. They have two or three good lines. They play with a lot of discipline, and they have a good goalie in Dan Ferrigan.”

“Winslow is an improved team,” acknowledged Schwarz. “They went from sixth to third in two and a half weeks.”

One key victory was a 4-2 upset over Brewer in their final regular season game.

But the Witches have put together the best season in the school’s history, and several of their players played in the Eastern B final a year ago, a 6-3 loss to eventual state champion Old Town.

“We would have preferred to go into the tournament with a win, but maybe losing the last one will give the kids a wake-up call,” said Schwarz.

Schwarz said he is pleased with the season his club has put together.

“We struggled early because we were trying different things to come up with the right line combinations,” said Schwarz, whose team put together a 10-game winning streak before the Winslow loss. “But I think we’ve done better than I expected. People say we had the team to beat, but you’ve got to realize we have only two seniors.”

Orono has struggled of late. “We’ve been taking too many penalties,” said Carroll. “We’ve been harping on that.” If that can be rectified, Orono could be a factor.

Brewer features the line of Aaron Boone (42 goals, 26 assists) between Darren Beers (26 & 19) and Eric Watt (6 & 9). Chris Roeder (10 & 19) and Aaron O’Donnell (1 & 10) anchor the defense in front of goalie Michael Lindstrom (8-1 record, 1.51 goals-against average, .917 save percentage).

Orono has been led by linemates RW Matt Westhoven (19 & 12), C Zac Pelleriti (15 & 16) and LW Chris Furbish (12 & 6) along with defenseman Chris Thurlow (5 & 7) and goalie Marc Halsted (11-5-1, 2.40, .893).

Carroll said receiving a bye could be a factor.

“Having the time off is a big, big help,” said the Orono coach. Having to play in the first round last year, he said, hurt his team for its semifinal against Old Town.