BANGOR – The Bangor High School hockey team has undergone a facelift this season.

And there were some frustrating growing pains, including four one-goal losses in the Rams’ 3-6 start.

But the Rams have since won five straight, including a 6-5 overtime triumph over arch-rival Brewer in which they erased a 5-0 deficit.

And they have been without senior centers Alex Porter (broken arm) and Drew Marin (knee injury) for seven and four games, respectively.

“We’ve had good senior leadership,” said first-year coach Ted Taylor, who replaced Dan Kerluke and has 11 seniors on his roster. “They’ve kept everybody positive and ready to work at the next practice to get better. The guys never quit. And they have learned how to play without a superstar. That took six, seven, eight games to get used to.”

Bangor went 18-5 and reached the Eastern Maine Class A championship game for the first time in its 22-year history last season but lost four of its key components: left wing Nick Payson, who led Class A in scoring with 43 goals and 28 assists; playmaking center T.J. Vanidestine (11 & 36); standout defenseman Jason Eremita and goalie Aaron Buzzell, one of three finalists for the Travis Roy Award given to the state’s top senior player.

Senior center Mike McPike said the returnees have a lot of experience and they have realized “it’s our job now.

“We do have a good team and we know if we come together that we can fill [the void]. We don’t need one or two stars. Together, we can do just as good a job,” added McPike.

Senior center Dylan George added, “We have our team chemistry now. We focus on team play. That has been our main theme and we’ve been doing it really well.”

With Porter and Marin out, freshman Johnny Warren got called up from the JV team and he scored the overtime winner over Brewer.

McPike admitted the 3-6 start prompted a team discussion.

“It was really frustrating. People around school were asking us why we had lost so many games. When we talked as a team, we decided we needed to step it up now and change the season. We were too good a team to lose that many games. We decided to come together and work together,” said McPike.

George said, “We knew we were just as good if not better than the teams we had lost to and we just had to keep plugging away. We knew we’d get the bounces eventually and we have.”

The Rams have featured balanced scoring from their top two lines.

That scoring depth will improve as Marin and Porter return over the next few weeks.

Marin had 8 & 4 in 10 games and Porter had 3 & 3 in seven.

George leads the Rams in scoring with 13 goals and 12 assists. He is on a line with Brewer transfer Dan Shufelt (8 & 9) and Warren.

McPike (6 & 1) centers the other scoring line between LW Matt Boehmer (10 & 9) and RW Ben Estabrook (2 & 7).

Jon Hyatt centers a hard-working third line between Tyler Harvey and Christian Dionne.

The Rams have a dependable and veteran defense corps led by seniors Ben Silver (3 & 5), Mike Varney and Joel Whitney and freshman Joe Gagne.

Senior Josh Seeley and sophomore Andrew Riley have been solid in goal during the win streak.

“We trust both of them,” said George who, like McPike, feels the Rams have a legitimate shot to win a wide-open EM A race.