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The Messalonskee High School Eagles from Oakland captured their first Class B North boys hockey championship since 2015 a year ago with a tightly contested 3-1 win over Hampden Academy in the regional final.
Cape Elizabeth beat the Eagles 4-3 in the state final.
Messalonskee and Hampden Academy could very well square off again in the regional final, according to the Class B North coaches. Both teams have returned most of their top players from a year ago.
“They’re the two best teams in the league. They each put up eight [goals] against us,” said Presque Isle head coach Carl Flynn, the dean of the Class B North coaches in his 19th year behind the Wildcat bench.
Messalonskee beat Presque Isle 8-1 and Hampden Academy triumphed over his Wildcats 8-3.
“They’re the top two but, after that, there’s a lot of parity,” said Tony Marino, who is returning to coach Houlton-Hodgdon-Katahdin for the second time.
John Bapst-Hermon-Bangor Christian-Deer Isle-Stonington coach Devin Fitzpatrick, Old Town-Orono coach Chris Thurlow and Brewer-Lawrence-Skowhegan coach Denis Collins agreed.
“After [Messalonskee and Hampden Academy], anyone can beat anyone else on a given night,” Thurlow said. “It’s pretty crazy.”
Among the group of seven teams below Messalonskee and Hampden Academy, Flynn thinks John Bapst and Camden Hills are “better than people anticipate and Brewer looked better in the preseason than I anticipated.”
The league will feature four new coaches among the nine teams.
Marino returns to Houlton-Hodgdon-Katahdin after serving as an assistant the last two years under Karl Enroth. Marino had been the head coach during a six-year span from 2013-2018.
Former Bangor and Old Town-Orono head coach Collins will be guiding the Witches for the first time after replacing Lance Ingerson. Harrison Rogers is taking over the Camden Hills job from John Magri and Doug Dieuveuil has replaced Shawn Johnson at Cony-Monmouth-Erskine Academy-Hall-Dale-Oceanside-Richmond-Winthrop.
Messalonskee returns 14 players off last year’s 18-3-1 team, including high-scoring junior Owen Kirk, an All-Class B North second team selection, third team defenseman Grayson Podey and three all-rookie team selections in defenseman Denny Martin (1st team), forward Tatum Doucette (2nd team) and goalie Hunter Hallee (2nd team).
Seniors Garrett Card, Tyler Hansen and Andrew Beckwith are threats up front and senior Bjorn Brickett helps anchor the defense corps along with Podey and Martin.
Messalonskee won its first three games with Kirk (6 goals, 5 assists), Hansen (3 & 7), Card (5 & 4) and Beckwith (5 & 3) leading the way up front and Podey (2 & 5) and Martin (2 & 4) chipping in from the blue line.
“We lost four regulars. But we do have a lot of experience,” said Messalonskee coach Dennis Martin, father of Denny Martin. “There are a lot of quality teams in B. We’re taking it one game at a time.”
Hampden went 10-7-1 during the regular season and was the fourth seed but upset top seed John Bapst of Bangor before losing to Messalonskee in the regional final.
The Broncos will have to replace All-Class B North third team goalie Aaron Donovan. Head coach Zach Wilson’s potent top line of All-B North fourth team pick Keith Brooks along with Matt Shayne and Lucas Dunn returns, as do two all-conference defensemen in second teamer Tucker Leland and fourth teamer Colin McKay, along with all-rookie teamers Gunnar Weil and Zach Wilson, the coach’s son.
Dunn had 4 & 3 in Hampden’s first two games; Shayne had 3 & 2 and Brooks had 1 & 4.
Sophomore Aiden Surran has given the Broncos solid goaltending in his first two starts.
“We have a good group of eight seniors who are the backbone of this team,” said Wilson, who expects his team to contend for the title again.
John Bapst earned the top seed and first round bye by going 15-3 during the regular season but the Crusaders were upset by Hampden Academy 3-1 in the semifinals.
Fitzpatrick graduated 11 players but he doesn’t consider it a rebuilding year because of the talent of both returning and incoming players.
“We won’t have the same look as last year but I see us being competitive in every contest,” said Fitzpatrick, who has to replace three first-team all-conference players in forward Carter Walls, defenseman Caleb Robbins and goalie Gavin Bartlett.
But he expects to receive productive seasons from seasoned forwards Will Bourgeois, Curtis Brown, Luke Getto, Cooper Lewis, Owen Maryatt and Maryatt’s freshman brother Nate, along with veteran defensemen Nick Needham and all-rookie teamer Silas Comstock.
They will be inexperienced in goal with Max Puhlman playing the first two games.
“We will be a work in progress. As long as we keep getting better, we’ll have a promising season,” he said.
Camden Hills is coming off a 9-10 season in which it lost to Hampden Academy 2-1 in the quarterfinals after winning the Class B North championship the previous season.
Camden Hills is off to a 3-1 start with the only loss coming to defending Class A champ Thornton Academy of Saco.
The Windjammers have one of the conference’s most prolific scorers in senior Owen McManus, an all-conference third team pick a year ago.
Sophomores Bowden Trzaska and Blake Christie will complement him up front, while Billy Kurzius will headline the defense corps and is one of two senior defensemen along with Owen Hotchkin. Quinn Hoppin and Oliver Sawitsky will be the goaltenders. Hoppin started as a freshman last year and Sawitsky has played well this season.
Brewer-Lawrence-Skowehgan went 6-12 and missed the playoffs a year ago but the Witches have one of the best forwards in the conference in dynamic senior Grady Vanidestine, who was a first team pick a year ago.
Defenseman Dom Stecher was an All-Rookie team pick.
Vanidestine has a pair of solid wingers around him on his line in Nick Tozier and Lawrence’s Cam Dostie, and Collins has an all-Skowhegan second line that is composed of the Cram brothers, Baylon and Grant, along with Joshua Hitchings.
Senior Hunter Merrithew will see a lot of ice time on a defense tandem with Stecher, and seasoned senior Ethan Hanscom will tend the goal with junior Calvin Grass backing him up.
“My biggest concern is our inexperience,” Collins said.
Old Town-Orono wound up 5-13-1 including a 7-3 loss to Presque Isle in the quarterfinals last year.
“We’re definitely improved over last year,” said Thurlow, the team’s coach. “We just aren’t overly deep.”
All B North second team center Dylan Davis is one of the fastest and most skilled forwards in the league and is a constant threat. He is flanked on his line by veteran Alex McCannell and Ridge Mitchell.
The team received a big lift from the return of talented defenseman Jackson Lizotte, who missed all of last season with a broken ankle.
Thurlow feels he has a dependable defense corps that also includes Avery Reading, Nate Baker and Owen Rand. And he said senior goalie Brock Parks has played well.
Presque Isle got off to a start that Flynn described as a “little bit discouraging” in the losses to Messalonskee and Hampden Academy.
But the Wildcats bounced back with an 8-1 win over rival Houlton-Hodgdon-Katahdin.
The Wildcats went 13-7 a year ago, losing to Messalonskee 3-2 in the semifinals.
Presque Isle features first team All-B North forward Isaac Staples, who is off to a productive start with five goals and two assists in three games, along with brothers Garrett and Gavin LeTourneau, forward Lucas Wood (4 goals, 1 assist), and veteran defensemen Charlie Peers and Cooper Boinske.
Junior Mason Flenner, who was moved up to forward from defense to play on a line with Staples and Garrett LeTourneau against Houlton-Hodgdon-Katahdin, has been a pleasant surprise, according to Flynn.
Connor Bell, the starter last season, returns in goal and Ethan Bosse also has played.
The Cony co-op team will be vastly improved over last year’s 2-15-1 team.
Senior defenseman Ray Dineen and junior forward Cooper Clark each had nine goals and five assists to lead the team a year ago and they have a better supporting cast around them with the likes of senior defenseman Brandon Smith, junior forward Ben Platt, sophomore forward Zach Waddell and junior goalie Landon Foster.
Foster was an All B-North fourth team pick and Dineen was on the all-rookie team.
Gardiner/Waterville/Winslow went 6-13 a year ago and will be rebuilding after losing several key players, including its top three scorers.
Goalie Aiden Paradis was chosen to the All-Rookie team and they have two solid senior defensemen in Chris Wastella and Donnie Gurney.
The Tigers, beset by injuries to five players in the early going, received goals from Gurney, junior Austin Gould and freshman Remington Lamoreau in their first two games, both losses.
Houlton-Hodgdon-Katahdin, 3-15 a year ago, has one of the league’s best goalies in Dawson Cole, a second team all-conference selection last season.
They also have an all-rookie forward in Patrick Marino, the coach’s son, and he will be complemented up front by Konnor Lynds and Zachary Hoops.
Garrett Fitzpatrick headlines the defense corps.
Tony Marino feels his team will be solid defensively in front of Cole but goal scoring will be the big question mark.
