BANGOR — After staggering down the stretch and slipping into the playoffs, the Cony/Hall-Dale/Monmouth hockey team needed to find a few elements of its game as the second season unfolded Tuesday night.
The No. 5 Rams needed to tighten up in their own end, find some additional goal-scoring and stay out of the penalty box. Cony did none of those things at Sawyer Arena, dropping a one-sided 6-0 decision to No. 4 Bangor in the Class A North quarterfinals. Bangor (12-7-0) advances to meet top-seeded, two-time defending state champion Lewiston in the regional semifinals on Saturday.
With the win, Bangor completed a season sweep of Cony (8-9-2), with all three games coming in the month of February. It was Cony’s seventh consecutive loss to Bangor overall and Bangor’s most lopsided win over Cony since 2015. Each of the previous five meetings between the two teams had been decided by two goals or fewer.
“Our guys came alive,” Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said. “We had a tough stretch at home where we lost a bunch of games, but we rebounded last game against Cony up here (on Feb. 16) and we’ve been playing great since. Hopefully, it’s momentum going forward because we need some help against Lewiston.”
Five different players accounted for the Bangor scoring, with David Brown scoring a pair of third-period goals. Josh Sherwood, Charlie Budd, Ben Lane and Anthony Caccese also scored for Bangor.
TURNING POINT: An 81-second span in the first half of the middle period proved Cony’s final undoing.
Cony played a reasonable road game in the opening stanza, outshooting Bangor despite allowing Sherwood’s goal less than three minutes in. But in the second, things unraveled quickly for the No. 5 seed.
Bangor won a faceoff in the offensive zone that set up Budd’s goal at the 5:26 mark. With Cony’s Quincy Tobias whistled off for slashing just over a minute later, Lane was left alone to hunt down a rebound and extend the home team’s lead to 3-0 at 6:47.
“We really picked up the pace in that second period, and all the way through the game we kept the accelerator on and never gave up,” Bangor junior goalie Jacob Henry said. “I think that’s why we came out with the 6-0 dub.”
The lead could have ballooned to four goals when Bangor’s leading scorer Nick Boudreau cut in off the left circle and forced a quick glove save from Cony netminder Dalton Bowie (26 saves). Cony coach Chad Foye immediately called timeout to try to slow the Bangor momentum.
“We started the game OK, but they picked it up in the second and we just didn’t match their intensity or their speed or their puck movement or anything else,” Foye said. “They executed the game really well and finished the game off and we didn’t. That’s kind of the bottom line.”
PENALTIES: In a 3-2 overtime loss to Bangor on Feb. 3, penalties hurt Cony as so many trips to the penalty box allowed Bangor to score more than once in that game with a two-man advantage.
Penalties were again part of the story Tuesday.
Cony senior defenseman Logan Leadbetter was given a five-minute major for contact to the head late in the first period, and though Bangor didn’t score it did build plenty of momentum with nearly two full minutes of that power play rolling over into the second period.
Bangor also failed to score on a full, two-minute 5-on-3 power play late in the second period. By then, the Rams had a 3-0 lead. They didn’t need the additional goal — but all the penalty killing time taxed Cony’s top forwards and defensemen on a squad already battling through a number of injuries.
“We had puck control, which is something we’ve really been preaching,” Paradis said. “We controlled the puck and didn’t have the turnovers we’ve had in games past. That’s something we’ve been working on.”
Brown’s second of the night, Bangor’s sixth goal, came during a 5-on-3 late in the third period.
In all, Cony was whistled for two major penalties, five minors and one misconduct totaling 30 minutes.
NO SECOND CHANCE: Henry was called on to make only 18 saves in his first career playoff start, but there wasn’t a single rebound chance in the bunch.
Even on Cony’s only power play of the game, early in the third period, the Rams generated just three shots — two from the points — with no traffic to pounce on rebounds.
“All of them to the corner and try to cover them when I could,” Henry said of his simple approach to netminding and rebound control. “I was pretty nervous in the beginning, but once I got the first few shots I warmed up. I was good from there.”
The win marked Henry’s first career playoff shutout after playing behind former Bangor goalie Derek Fournier previously.
“He made the saves when he needed to. He’s been like that all year for us,” Paradis said. “Losing one of the best goalies in the state, you wonder what’s going to happen the next year. He’s really emerged and taken the position really well.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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