The Bangor High School hockey team began the season with consecutive losses to Brewer (2-1), Lewiston (9-2) and Cony High of Augusta (6-3).

But the Rams have since strung together three straight wins in their quest to qualify for one of the eight berths in the State Class A schoolboy hockey tournament.

Bangor was the seventh seed in last season’s tourney and was eliminated by St. Dom’s of Lewiston 7-2 in the quarterfinals.

The Rams lost eight important players off that 9-12 team including leading goal scorer Brock Soucie (23 goals), the Tanis brothers Jeremy and Chris and defenseman Jon Boehmer. “One of our goals was to get to .500 for the Christmas break and we’ve accomplished that,” said Bangor Coach Tim McDougal, who is in the second year of his second tour of duty as the Rams coach. He had coached them for their first nine years of existence before Guy Perron took the job for two years.

The key to their resurgence has been the explosive, swift-skating line of freshman center Jared Gordon between junior left wing Justin Payson and sophomore right wing Jeff Shulkosky.

That line has combined for 15 of Bangor’s 21 goals in the three victories.

“They’re fun to watch. That line is among the best we’ve had at Bangor,” said the 53-year-old McDougal. “Jared is worth the price of admission by himself; Jeff is a hard worker who plays both ends of the ice and Justin is my horse. He’s got a good heavy shot and he works hard with those two youngsters.”

“They did a very good job against us,” said Hampden Coach Paul Henderson who saw that line notch four goals and six assists in Bangor’s 5-0 win last week. “Payson is the key to it.”

Payson, a 13-goal scorer a year ago, already has nine this season and Gordon has seven.

McDougal also has an all-senior line featuring David Esty between Tim Rolland and Brad Eslin; an all-sophomore line with twins Corey and Chris Junkins and right wing Tom Carey and another young line with sophomore Eric Vogell between freshman Ryan Shumaker and sophomore Adam Violette.

Corey Bobb and Scott Samiya are spare forwards.

The defense corps is also relatively young as Billy Bruns is the only senior. Junior Ryan Gass is the take-charge guy along the blue line. Juniors Jay Faulkner and Chris Black; sophomore Andy Sumner and freshman Zach Capehart are the other regulars on what McDougal termed a “mobile” blue line corps.

Sophomore Jason Tuck and freshman Richard Laferte have done a good job between the pipes, according to McDougal.

Each one has a shutout for the Rams, the only Class A team north of Waterville.

Hampden’s Henderson said Bangor has a good team.

“Their goaltender (Tuck) played real well against us; they played well positionally and they certainly hustled and worked hard the whole game,” said Henderson.

McDougal said Bangor’s primary goal is to qualify for the playoffs and he feels it is an “attainable goal.

“If we can play .500 hockey, we’ll have a chance to get there,” said McDougal, whose Rams play their final 14 games against all Class A teams.

Another week has been added to the already lengthy wait for the Penobscot Valley Conference-Eastern Maine Indoor Track League’s first meet.

The league’s home, the University of Maine’s field house, is still undergoing renovations and, as with all gargantuan projects, won’t be finished in time for the Jan. 4 track meet.

“[Assistant director of UM athletics] Jim Dyer called me Tuesday and said the painting won’t be dune until the first week of January,” PVC-EMITL director Mary Cady said. “That went over real big with the coaches I had to call.”

Because of the construction delay, the fieldhouse will not be open until Jan. 8, and the first league meets would take place Jan. 10, 11, and 12.