The thrill of winning the Class B ice hockey championship has finally settled in for Waterville junior defenseman Andrew Roderigue.
Fellow starting defenseman Matt Jolicoeur, however, is still wrapping his head around the emotional 3-2 victory over Yarmouth in double overtime on March 5 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“It’s just a great feeling,” Jolicoeur said Tuesday. “I’m happy I could do it with the team. We all work hard every day at practice and my high school team, we deserved to win that game.”
Roderigue and Jolicoeur have each since turned in their purple, white and black jerseys for the winter, and next Wednesday will start their pursuit of another championship.
Beginning next week, Roderigue will travel with the Maine Moose under-18 junior hockey team to Amherst, New York to compete in the Youth Tier II 18U national championship. Jolicoeur, meanwhile, will head to Wayne, New Jersey with the Moose 16U team to compete for a national title. The Moose will also send a 14U team to nationals in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It was a huge year with all the championships,” said Moose owner/general manager Ben Gray, who also coaches the 16U and 14U teams. “Overall, the 16s and the 14s went undefeated in the state all year long, including playoffs. The 18s lost one or two games during the season, but they all had very strong seasons.”
Roderigue said this would be his first trip to the national tournament and that he was looking forward to facing the step up in competition.
“It’s definitely exciting,” Roderigue said. “Where we’re going it’s pretty cool, right on Niagara Falls. I’m just going to enjoy this, honestly.”
The 18U Moose earned their trip to nationals last November with a 4-2 win over the Biddeford Tigers to capture the MEAHA Tier II state title. The team — coached by Thomas College club hockey coach Jeff Ross and Jamie King — took a break during the high school season and began practicing again Tuesday.
Roderigue did not think it would take too long to build chemistry again thanks to the great deal of familiarity the players have with each other. Also on the team are Messalonskee’s Brandon Nale, Dylan Burton, Dustin Brown and Dylan Brown, as well as Cony/Monmouth/Hall-Dale goalkeeper Tommy Small. Cam Stewart, of Sabattus, and Cody Stockford, of Winthrop, play for Kents Hill during the high school season, while Windsor’s Dalton Fortin is a 2015 Erskine Academy graduate.
“The’yre a fun group of guys and they’re from all different areas of the state,” Ross said. “Everybody brings something different to the table but they’ve worked hard.”
The group that plays for the 16U team, meanwhile, will be heading to nationals for a third consecutive year. The team — which had a heavier schedule in the fall and played on Sundays during the high school season — clinched its spot at nationals with a win over Casco Bay in November in the state championship to finish off a 16-0-2 season.
“Going into last year we were a young team,” Jolicoeur said. “This year we had a great season, obviously, and I feel like this is the year we’re going to take it home. That’s what the goal is.”
Locally, Jolicoeur is joined on the team by Cony/Monmouth/Hall-Dale junior Cam Wilson, while Kents Hill goaltender Esa Maki, of Jay, is also on the team. The group features eight players from Class A champ Lewiston High — including Jeromey Rancourt, who scored the game-winning goal with 29 seconds left to seal the Blue Devils’ 2-1 win over Scarborough in the state title game.
“That’s an interesting team because top to bottom it’s full of talent,” said Gray, who will coach the team in New Jersey. “A lot of the kids are first-line guys for high school teams.”
Gray said he and the 14U coaching staff — Bill Desmarais, Jeff Jordan and Kents Hill athletic director Doug Friedman — decided before the teams clinched their trips to nationals that if both teams qualified he would stick with the 16U team.
“It was more of a hypothetical who goes with who and it just came to fruition that it did happen. It’s not a bad problem,” Gray said. “The 16s I’ve coached for four or five years, so I would continue to go with them.”
The 14U team played throughout the winter and posted a 21-0-3 record in league play. It defeated the Maine Gladiators 6-3 at Camden National Ice Vault on Sunday, March 13 to win the MEAHA championship and qualify for nationals.
Gray said Joe Clark, of Gardiner, has been a strong contributor for the 14U team along with Kents Hill’s Grady Friedman, Reese Farrell — who led St. Dominic Academy in points this past season as a freshman — and goaltenders Brenden Gasaway and Drake Wheelden, of Kents Hills.
Clinton’s Jordan Clark, Gardiner’s Matt Poirier, Oakland’s Dylan Cunningham, Chelsea’s Zach Whitney, Sidney’s Noah King and Winslow residents Cody Ivey, Nathan Newgard and Brandon Mason also play on the team.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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