EM title up for grabs Gardiner among early favorites

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There will be a new Eastern Maine Class B hockey champion and plenty of candidates since defending regional and state titlist Brewer has moved up to Class A.

“The league is so tight this year,” said Orono coach Greg Hirsch. “This is the most parity I’ve seen in a long time. Gardiner and Winslow are the preseason favorites because they’re returning a ton of talent.

“After that, Presque Isle has a lot back, Houlton-Hodgdon is always competitive and John Bapst should have a heck of a squad. Old Town has improved quite a bit and won’t be an easy game anymore, and Hampden should be improved.”

“You can never count Orono out,” added Houlton-Hodgdon coach Joel Trickey. “There will be the same strong teams, but the weaker teams have all gotten better. Everyone has a shot to make the playoffs.”

“It’s going to be a great league. This is the best it’s been as long as I can remember,” said John Bapst of Bangor coach Aaron King.

Presque Isle and John Bapst each lost only three players and should seriously challenge Winslow and Gardiner.

Dr. Carl Flynn’s Presque Isle Wildcats shocked top-seeded Orono in the semis 4-2 with nine first-year players before losing to Brewer 8-0.

“Our whole defense corps is back as is our top goal scorer,” said Flynn. “And Ethan Hill returns in net.”

Hill made 36 saves vs. Orono.

“We should be better than last year. We’ll be bigger and faster,” said Flynn. “We’ll need leadership up front to replace [captain] Ben McPherson.”

Brandon Daigle was a 20-goal scorer and he will be flanked by Sean Flanagin and Mark Carvell. Another veteran line will feature Brennen Shaw, Dylan Collins and Zac Campbell.

Co-captains Greg Cyr and Parker Hovey headline the veteran defense corps along with Steve Ford, Jason Martin and Mitchell Sperrey.

John Bapst suffered a “lot of growing pains” while going 14-7 last year, according to King, and he is hoping those growing pains translate into wins.

“We have depth we haven’t had in a while,” said King.

Andrew Casey, the team’s leading scorer as a freshman before missing last season with a knee injury, has returned and will give the Crusaders a huge lift in all areas including leadership.

The Crusaders also return three proven scorers in Casey Hull (47 points), Connor Scofield and Neil Lafrance.

John Cooper, newcomer Nikki Mitchell and the hard-working third line of Matt Swift between Travis Poulin and Ethan Sale should chip in some goals and a strong defense corps will be led by talented Chase Huckestein along with Ryan Hayes, transfer Tyler Fadrigon, Chris Dunbar and Matt Duplisea.

Sophomore goalie Derek Duff was chosen to Eastern B’s All-Rookie team last year.

Orono will be “rebuilding a little bit,” according to Hirsch.

The dynamic line of Sean Babin between Tony Raymond and Chris McConnon combined for 93 goals and 85 assists a year ago, but they’ve graduated along with goalie Jared Bussell.

“We lost a lot of talent and you can’t reproduce talent. We’re going to have to be almost perfect in our defensive zone coverage and let the offense take care of itself. We have some creative guys up front,” said Hirsch.

Brandon Paul (15 goals, 10 assists), Nathan Curtis (9 & 17) and Mark Cloutier (7 & 7) will need to put up some numbers and Hirsch is expecting Kirk Francis and Ben Perry to take on more prominent roles.

Chad Evinger, Luke Estes and Jake Doing have valuable experience on the blue line and Kyle Cleary is effective.

Senior David Eugley, who backed up Bussell, has looked sharp between the pipes.

Houlton-Hodgdon’s Trickey will have 15 freshmen and sophomores among his 22 players but said, “There’s quite a bit of talent there.”

“We should be all right and once the younger players get used to playing at our level, they should contribute pretty well,” said Trickey.

Chris McGuire, Morgan Hall, Taylor Martin, Craig Buxton, Lowell Matthews and Ashir Abouleish are veteran forwards expected to carry the offensive load along with freshmen Cody Briggs and Ben Ward.

Zach Chase, Jake Peabody and Elliot Mooers have experience on defense. Avery McGuire is a promising freshman.

Freshman Malik Abouleish has been impressive in goal, and sophomore Levi Ledger played half the games last year.

Mark Walsh expects his Hampden Academy Broncos to be competitive after a 4-16 campaign a year ago.

“We’ll have 10 seniors, so we have a pretty positive outlook,” said Walsh.

Josh Tardiff, the team’s leading scorer; Mike Mourkas and Yarmouth transfer Cody McAllister will comprise one line with Ethan Chase, Sam McNutt and Troy Gaudet on another productive line.

Seniors Corey Morin and Kevin Brown, junior Ian Lamberton and freshman Nate Baker will receive key minutes on the blue line in front of returning goalies Matt Albert and Matt McCarthy and freshman Jacob Ward.

Perennial title contender Winslow, according to coach Corey Lessard, lost “four or five players off our top three lines, but we have a big returning group coming back.”

Seniors Derek Lizotte, Mitch Maroon and Matt Loubier and All-Rookie team member Charlie Kriegal will supply the Raiders with a solid defense corps in front of goalies Hayden Fuller, Ryan Cormier and Jesse Little.

Ben Grant, Chad Guptill, Sean Bourgeois, Jeff Brown and Dan Clark will be the key components up front.

Gardiner will be bolstered by the return of power forward Bass Chadwick, who spent the previous two years playing for the Portland Junior Pirates.

He will play on a line with Klinton Peckham and Mike Hersom. Forward Peter Caradonna and goalie Chris Howe are gifted.

Old Town has a new coach in Brett Hale and the optimistic Hale said he has a stellar defense corps led by talented workhorse Joey Doucette along with Pat Singer, Ryan Millett and Ryan Daniels. Daniels can also play up front.

Elite-caliber center Jason Smith, who is closing in on 100 career points, tops the list of forwards along with linemate Josh Hesseltine and freshman Cody Cross.

Seven players are currently serving three-game academic suspensions, so the Coyotes will open the season with 12 skaters and freshman goalie Cameron Washburn.