Red Riots renew regional rivalry with Raiders Orono meets Winslow again for East B title

Orono High School hockey coach Greg Hirsch said his team’s rivalry with Winslow is “one of the best rivalries” in high school sports.

And they will meet again at 7 tonight at Alfond Arena in Orono with an Eastern Maine Class B championship on the line.

The Eastern Maine Class A final between 18-4 top seed Bangor and 17-5 second seed Lewiston, which was postponed by Tuesday’s storm, will also be played tonight at 6 at Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center.

Hirsch, in his 10th year at Orono, is 1-1 in Eastern B championship games against the Raiders.

“You’re going to have two very equal teams battling,” said Winslow coach Don Skillings. “We had two great games during the season. It’s one versus two. That’s the way it should be.”

The Black Raiders are the 16-4-1 and the top seed while No. 2 seed Orono is 17-3-1.

The winner will meet the Cape Elizabeth-Greely victor in Saturday’s 1 p.m. State B game at the Colisee in Lewiston.

Winslow beat Orono in both regular season meetings, erasing a 3-0 deficit to triumph 6-3 at home and collecting a 4-3 overtime win in Orono.

Two of the premier forwards in Eastern B will square off in Winslow senior winger Jon Lizzotte, the league’s Player of the Year, and Orono junior center John Tuell, an All-Eastern B first team choice.

Lizzotte has 10 goals and 17 assists to pace a deep and balanced Winslow scoring attack while Tuell has amassed 33 goals and 27 assists.

“Jon’s hands and change of gear are incredible,” said Skillings. “And Tuell is not far behind. It should be a good stage for them.”

Winslow will have to keep an eye on Tuell’s line as Tony Raymond has 26 goals and 26 assists and Jake Roeder has 18 goals and 28 assists.

“We have to make sure they don’t dominate the game,” said Skillings.

The Raiders will be without senior Brian Poulin (14 & 13), who was a linemate of Lizzotte’s but suffered a season-ending shoulder separation in a recent scrimmage with Eastern A finalist Lewiston.

“That’s a huge loss,” said Skillings, who has played a variety of people in his place on a line with Lizzotte and Clint Willoughby (10 & 10).

Winslow has also received excellent production from center and leading goal scorer Andy Wheeler (17 & 9) and Kevin McCabe (11 & 10).

“We’re four lines deep,” said Skillings who pointed out that his fourth liners would be among the top lines for “almost every other team in our league.”

“They have great depth,” said Hirsch. “They can all move the puck.”

Winslow has outscored its opponents 106-37.

Hirsch feels his Riots will have to slow the Raiders down in the neutral zone and sustain a forecheck to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

He also said Winslow likes to “set up behind your net” so his Riots will have to do a thorough job protecting its net front.

One of the Riot defensemen who will be responsible for that task will be standout junior Travis Bryant, who will log a lot of ice time.

Headlining the Winslow defense corps will be seniors Alex Pellerin (2 & 10) and Brian Ellis (3 & 8).

Raider junior Devon Grenier has a 1.95 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage and he will be opposed by Jared Buzzell.