Bangor hockey starts strong, faces test at Cheverus

There are plenty of new names on the Bangor High School hockey roster.

But it hasn’t stopped the Rams from entering a Saturday showdown with defending two-time Class A state champion Cheverus of Portland with a 2-0 record.

Bangor, despite losing a huge chunk of its offense with the graduation of Dylan George, Dan Shufelt, Mike McPike and Ben Estabrook, has impressive road wins over Edward Little of Auburn (6-4) and Waterville (1-0).

“We’re happy with our start. We have a really strong schedule. If we can equal last year’s numbers, we’ll be doing great,” said second-year coach Ted Taylor, who led the Rams to a 13-8 record a year ago and a berth in the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals where they lost to Lewiston 2-1 in overtime.

Bangor reached the EM final for the first time ever two years ago, losing to Lewiston 3-2.

“We’ll have more speed than we had last year but we’re smaller. We’ll be more of a finesse team than a rock ’em, sock ’em team,” added Taylor.

“We have a really young team,” said senior defenseman and co-captain Joel Whitney. “We’ve got a lot of small, quick kids who work hard.”

Whitney said the newcomers have been fast learners.

“Our sophomores and freshmen have a ton of potential,” added senior center and co-captain Matt Boehmer.

Boehmer also said the Rams have good chemistry and they have more parity among their lines this season.

“Last year, we had only two [prominent] lines and that killed us at the end of the year. This year we have three [good] lines and even our fourth line can play,” said Boehmer.

Boehmer and linemates Christian Dionne, a junior right wing, and sophomore left wing Johnny Warren should be a prolific trio.

Talented freshman left wing Nick George, younger brother of Dylan, speedy sophomore center David Pardilla and tenacious senior right wing Jon Hyatt should also provide the Rams with a productive scoring line.

A resourceful third line will have senior Steve Trundy between sophomores Steve Seccareccia and Chad Kelley. Seccareccia and Kelley were JV players last year.

An all-sophomore fourth line features Alan Reese between Cam Taylor and Josh Kelley.

“We need to develop a third line that can soak up minutes,” said Taylor.

Whitney and Jake Silver are in their fourth years as regulars along the blue line and senior transfer Alex Mooers, who helped lead Houlton-Hodgdon to its first EM Class B final last year, has been a “great addition” according to Taylor.

Vastly-improved junior Ted Murray, a JV last year; senior Raddi Mitchell and freshman Chris Quirk will also patrol the blue line.

Junior Andrew Riley returns in goal and will be backed up by freshman Zack Hamilton.

“Andrew has been amazing,” said Boehmer.

The Rams are looking forward to Saturday’s road challenge against a Cheverus team that was 43-3-1 over the last two seasons.

“We want to send a message throughout the state [that we can play],” said Boehmer.

“We want to show we’re for real,” agreed Whitney. “This will be one of the biggest games of the year for us.”