Bonny Eagle and Fryeburg Academy/Lake Region will make rare appearances in the Western Class A boys’ hockey tournament today.
The Scots and Ice Cats play preliminary-round games in hopes of advancing to the regional quarterfinals on Tuesday.
No. 9 Bonny Eagle visits No. 8 Gorham, while No. 10 Fryeburg/Lake Region faces No. 7 Kennebunk at Biddeford Ice Arena.
It will be Bonny Eagle’s first playoff appearance in four seasons. The Ice Cats last qualified for the playoffs in 2007.
Two young forwards, sophomore Josh Bagley and freshman Shayne Plummer, lead Bonny Eagle’s offense.
“They’ve played above and beyond their age level, to be honest with you,” Bonny Eagle Coach Mark Whitman said.
Bagley and Plummer each have 17 goals.
Gorham and Bonny Eagle are quite familiar with each other.
“We played them in a Thanksgiving tournament, a Christmas tournament and once in the regular season, and we haven’t had much success against them,” Whitman said
On Feb. 8, the Rams cruised to an 8-3 win against the Scots.
“We made a lot of mistakes, and they kept on scoring goals,” Whitman said. “We’ve got some defensemen who were not very experienced, and they just kept turning the puck over, and it ended up in the back of our net.”
Forwards Spencer Cowand and Chris Hardy lead Gorham with 22 and 14 goals. In 16 games, Justin Broy has a 2.17 goals-against average.
Goaltending has provided the backbone to most of Fryeburg/Lake Region’s success.
Pavle Stepanovic is a member of Serbia’s national U-16 squad, and Topi Laakso, a native of Finland in his first year at the school, has a 2.38 goals-against average in eight games.
Stepanovic, who has allowed one goal in his last two starts, will be in net today, as Laakso is traveling with his family during school vacation.
“Obviously, goaltending has been a key, but the last two weeks we’ve had some goal scoring, which is something we struggled with all season,” Ice Cats Coach David LePage said. “Lately, our forwards have been putting the puck in the net, and all Pavle needs is one or two goals and we can get the job done.”
It will be Stepanovic’s last start for Fryeburg/Lake Region as he’s scheduled to leave Sunday to spend a month with the Serbian squad.
“If we win, we hope Topi will come back and take the net over,” LePage said.
The Class B tournaments begin Tuesday with the quarterfinals.
Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:
pbetit@pressherald.com
Twitter: PaulBetitPPH
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