BANGOR – The John Bapst High School hockey team has never been in an Eastern Maine Class B championship game.

That is the Bangor-based Crusaders’ goal this season and second-year coach Aaron King feels it is a realistic one.

“Class B is wide open. Five teams could win it,” said King, whose Crusaders compiled their second straight 14-win season.

The Crusaders followed a 14-7 campaign in 2006-2007 with a 14-5-1 record this season which will should them a bye in the quarterfinal round of the EM Class B tournament.

The final MPA hockey points will be released today.

“Goaltending and team defense [have been our keys],” said King. “We’ve allowed only 42 goals. We’ve been very good defensively, especially in our own end.”

He also said his team doesn’t “panic” in close games like they have in the past because they’re playing with more confidence.

“They’ve learned how to win,” said King. “They finally believe they can play with the top teams in the league.”

King lost just three players off last year’s team, which suffered a disappointing loss to Presque Isle in the quarterfinals.

“We have high expectations,” admitted King.

“We’re more prepared this season,” said defenseman Chase Huckestein. “[King] was in his first year last year and we had to learn his systems. And we’ve got two good goalies.”

“We have more depth than we had last season,” added left wing Casey Hull.

King concurred, saying, “I think we have one of the deepest teams in the league.”

Hull also said they have benefited from playing a tough schedule.

Derek Duff and Nate Kuneman have been the Crusaders’ one-two punch between the pipes.

Duff has seen the majority of the time and is 9-4 while Kuneman has been 5-1-1.

Huckestein anchors the blue line corps along with transfer Tyler Fadrigon and Matt Duplisea. Joey Thompson and Chris Dunbar have also given the Crusaders valuable minutes on the back line.

Their top scoring line is comprised of Hull, center Andrew Casey and right wing Neil Lafrance. King said Hull has 36 points, Casey has 19 and LaFrance has “14-15 points.”

Hull led the team a year ago with 47 points.

That line averaged eight points a game during a recent stretch according to the Bapst coach.

Another productive line consists of Connor Scofield, Nick Mitchell and defensive specialist Ethan Sale. King said Schofield has 20 points and Mitchell has 19.

King also has a checking line featuring Travis Poulin, Matt Swift and John Cooper that “has allowed only two goals [all season].”

King said his players have been extremely coachable.

“They’ve been great. They work their tails off,” said King. “I couldn’t ask them to work any harder and they listen to what we say.”

Hampden Academy coach Mark Walsh said the Crusaders “have just as good a chance as anyone” to win the Eastern Maine title.

“They have a solid team up and down the lineup. They don’t have any glaring weaknesses,” said Walsh. “They skate hard for three periods. They don’t let up. Aaron has done a real good job keeping them focused that way.”

He added that there isn’t much dropoff between the top three lines and they have “a pretty solid defense and very solid goaltending.”

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