He has been a marked man.

But Orono High School senior center Jake Hedstrom has still managed to find the back of opposing nets 36 times and dish out 28 assists in leading his unbeaten Red Riots in to Wednesday night’s 6:30 Eastern Maine Class B schoolboy hockey final against Gardiner at Alfond Arena in Orono.

The Tigers, 18-1-3 with their only loss coming to 22-0 Orono, will know where Hedstrom is at all times.

But that’s OK, according to Hedstrom.

“I get a lot more attention from opposing teams in the playoffs. But if they’re paying more attention to me, at least one of my teammates is going to be open. So I’ll look for the open man and set him up,” said Hedstrom.

The man Hedstrom and his mates will be taking aim at Wednesday has also had an exceptional career: senior goalie Ray Jean.

Jean and Hedstrom played together on a team that toured Sweden last spring and they are friends.

“We’re pretty close friends, actually. We had a lot of fun together in Sweden,” said Hedstrom.

“We hung out together over there,” said Jean. “He’s a good player and a good guy.”

The friendship will be put on the backburner Wednesday.

“It’s going to be real tough scoring goals on him,” said Hedstrom. “He likes to stay at home in the net. He’s a butterfly goalie who is good with his glove. He doesn’t have many weaknesses. He will stop the first shot so the key for us will be to drive to the net and hope to get rebounds and put them in when he’s out of position.”

Jean said Hedstrom has “a lot of speed.

“He didn’t score any goals in the last game [3-1 Orono win at the Kennebec Ice Arena in Augusta] but he had some chances. We kept him to the outside. Our defense did a real good job on him.”

Gardiner coach Chris Buck, who is hoping to lead his team to their first EM crown since he donned the Tiger goalie pads in 1985, said Hedstrom is “definitely one of the better players in the league.

“He has speed and good moves. We’ve done a lot of work with our defensemen over the last couple of weeks on stepping up and playing the body more,” added Buck. “Hopefully, we’ll keep him to the outside and Ray won’t give up any goals from the outside.”

Hedstrom and Jean are the catalysts for their respective teams but there is no shortage of top-notch supporting cast members.

Senior left wing Andy Nagy has 36 goals and 20 assists for the Tigers and linemates Jim Moore and Ben Brown have combined for more than 30 goals and 35 assists.

Gardiner second-line center Shawn Kelley has 22 goals and linemates Justin Lebourdias and Ryan Jean, have 16 and five goals, respectively.

Hedstrom’s linemates, Will Toner and Nat Breece, have teamed up for 31 goals and 29 assists. Toner has 19 goals.

Second-line center Pat Skall has lit the lamp 22 times and has dished out 18 assists; linemates Mike Merritt (14 goals & 24) and Eric Gordon (8 & 7) have also had productive years. Third-liner Derek Williams has 15 assists to go with three goals.

Both teams will play three lines.

Chris Rogers has amassed more than 30 points on the blue line for Gardiner with Jared Epperson and Josh Bickford providing the Tigers with solid, stay-at-home defense.

Travers Kurr, Brian Caggiano Ian Ferguson and Dustin Sleight anchor a steady Riot blue line corps in front of goalie Casey Hale, who has stopped 52 of 54 playoff shots he has faced.

“Our kids are hungry,” said Buck. “They played so well against Orono the last time. They know they outplayed Orono but Orono scored on a couple of quick breaks. We’ve got to play better in front of our own net and stop hitting their goalie in the chest with our shots.”

Gardiner outshot Orono 39-22.

Hedstrom said Gardiner has a quick team and he feels playing at their home rink will help.