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The undefeated Brewer High School hockey team has something to prove tonight when it faces-off against arch-rival Bangor at Sawyer Arena at 6:30.
“We’ve never beaten them,” pointed out Brewer senior center and tri-captain Reid McLaughlin, whose Witches have squandered 5-0 and 4-0 leads in two of their six losses to the Rams.
Defending Eastern Maine Class B champ Brewer is 7-0 and perched atop the EM Class B Heal points standings.
Bangor is 5-1 and positioned third in the Eastern A points standings. Brunswick snapped Bangor’s unbeaten streak on Saturday, 2-0.
“It seems like they always get a lucky bounce at the end and they capitalize on it. When we get our lucky bounce, we don’t,” said junior center and tri-captain Prentiss Swett.
Senior defenseman and tri-captain Devin Fitzpatrick said the Witches have been good enough to beat the Rams “but we’ve beaten ourselves. We’ve taken too many penalties.
“This year we’re definitely looking to step it up,” added Fitzpatrick.
The Witches have been explosive, averaging 8.9 goals per game. Sophomore center Dylan Fitzpatrick, Devin’s brother, has 15 goals and three assists for 18 points and McLaughlin has 10 goals and four assists for 14. They have five other players with at least 10 points in Ryan Nadeau (3 & 10), Devin Fitzpatrick (2 & 13), Mike Kotredes (5 & 7), Swett (5 & 6) and John Ambrose (3 & 7).
“Brewer has snipers. They’ve been scoring all kinds of goals. They’ve got a lot of talent,” said Bangor coach Ted Taylor. “We’re going to have to shut down [Dylan] Fitzpatrick and McLaughlin. That’s 75 percent of it. The rest is playing solid defense.”
The Rams have played a tougher schedule. Included among their wins are impressive road victories over Edward Little of Auburn (6-4), Waterville (1-0) and defending two-time state champ Cheverus of Portland (3-2 in overtime).
“We’ve played well. We played in a Christmas tournament and were a little tired going into the Brunswick game. The kids were distracted and didn’t have their best performance,” said Taylor. “But they’re ready to go now.”
The Rams have been led by junior goalie Andrew Riley; senior defensemen Jake Silver and Joel Whitney and its top two lines of Matt Boehmer between Johnny Warren and Christian Dionne and Dave Pardilla between Nick George and Jon Hyatt.
The Brewer tri-captains feel the game is an important one from a credibility standpoint. They said if they don’t win, people will feel their record can be attributed to a weak schedule.
“There are a lot of people who don’t think we’re as good as we were last year. This gives us a chance to prove ourselves,” said McLaughlin.
Brewer has a distinct edge in experience with 15 seniors and juniors to Bangor’s 10.
“We want to use our experience and size to wear them down,” said Brewer coach Bill Schwarz, who formerly coached Bangor.
“It’ll be fun,” said Schwarz, who will start senior goalie Aaron Saunders (6 goals allowed in 5 games).
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