AUBURN — Bangor coach Quinn Paradis understood the Rams were the underdog coming into Friday’s playoff game with Edward Little. However, he expected the effort to be there to pull off the upset.
He was right.
The sixth-seeded Rams defeated the third-seeded Red Eddies 4-2 in a Class A boys hockey quarterfinal game at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“This is where we wanted to be,” Paradis said. “We aren’t the top team in the league, but we are a hard team to play against. That’s what we have been preaching in the month of February: Be tough to play against and show up to play, be accountable. Good things will come from that.”
The win is a nice bounce back from last year’s quarterfinal exit to Scarborough.
“To me, it’s a new feeling,” Bangor goalie Liam Doughty said. “This is my first year starting, so it’s a very new feeling after getting cut off in the first round. It’s awesome as a team — we are all coming together.”
The Rams (9-9-1) will now play second-seeded Thornton Academy (15-4) in the semifinals on Tuesday at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
“I think teams should be worried about us for sure,” Bangor forward Marc-Andre Perron said. “We are coming off a really good end to our regular season. We are tough to play against, that’s for sure.”
Puck luck wasn’t with the Red Eddies on Friday night, according to head coach Norm Gagne.
“I thought the effort was there,” Gagne said. “We really had a lot of pucks on net, we couldn’t put one by their goalie. The goalie played well for them. When you hold a team to 16 shots, you should win when you put 32 on them. You double the shots on goal. It just didn’t go our way.”
Bangor had early pressure on Edward Little. The Rams nearly capitalized on a couple of turnovers by the Red Eddies (15-4), but Gage Ducharme (12 saves) made the stops.
Edward Little then had a flurry of shots on Doughty, but he also came big for his team.
Edward Little senior forward Caleb Albert broke the ice when his backhander beat Doughty with 3:34 remaining in the first period.
“It was a really nice goal. It got us going,” Gagne said. “Then we got that second goal and I thought we were well on our way.”
Edward Little took a 2-0 lead into the locker room when Doughty saved an Andrew Clements shot, but the rebound came out to Peyton Dyer. Dyer’s shot sneaked past Doughty (30 saves) with 1:19 remaining in the first period.
Bangor wasn’t deterred from being down a couple of goals.
“I felt a lot of energy from the crowd — it was a packed house. We came in after the first period, our hopes weren’t down, but it was an uphill battle,” Doughty said. “We ride as a team, and came back out firing.”
Bangor started the second period in the offensive zone but Ducharme kept the 2-0 lead for the Red Eddies.
The Rams scored a quick power-play goal off a faceoff with 8:07 remaining in the period when Michael Moscone beat Ducharme.
“That line is working hard for us and producing,” Paradis said. “That’s what we need.”
Bangor went 1 for 2 on the man-advantage. Edward Little went 0 for 1.
Jackson Guimond then jammed the puck past Ducharme, tying the game 2-2. The goal came with under four minutes remaining in the middle frame.
Gagne said he had to reconfigure the lineup in the second period after Albert went off for injury — he did come back for the third period — and defenseman Gavin Levesque had an equipment issue that forced him to miss some time.
“In that second period, everything went haywire on us,” Gagne said. “Caleb got hurt and we were trying to match their lines, but we couldn’t do that, because one of our top-six (forwards) was out.”
Marc-Andre Perron deflected the puck past Ducharme in the final minute of the second period to give the Rams the lead. Zachary Lindquist and Preston Henry had the assists.
“I heard the click of the stick from the goalie letting us know our penalty kill was over,” Perron said. “I saw a guy down low and I just threw it down low to him. He threw it on net, it hit off my shoulder and I give it a little touch (into the net). It was a great feeling for sure.”
Edward Little started to put pucks toward the goal in the middle of the third period but couldn’t get any grade-A scoring chances on those opportunities.
Gagne used his timeout with 2:25 remaining. The Rams buckled down for the final few minutes by making it difficult for Ducharme to leave his crease for the extra attacker. Edward Little finally got the sixth skater on the ice with under a minute left. But Miles Randall iced the game for Bangor by shooting from the neutral zone for the empty-net goal.
“The kids gave the effort,” Gagne said. “As I told them in (the locker room), you can be the better team and you don’t win. It’s the way it is.”
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