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A pair of champions are set to face off for the Class A boys hockey championship this weekend.

Thornton Academy, the defending Class A champion, will meet Cheverus/Yarmouth, for the Class A title at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. Cheverus/Yarmouth won the two most recent Class B championships before moving up a class this season.

That means there will be a new Class B champion, either the Hampden co-op team or the York co-op, who face off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cross Insurance Arena.

Saturday marks the fourth trip to the Class A final in the past five years for the Golden Trojans. They’ve won two state crowns during that stretch. Thornton Academy has been led by senior forwards Jake Skillings (20 goals, 27 assists) and Trent LeSieur (23 goals, 18 assists), both of whom played critical roles in the Trojans’ 4-1 victory over Falmouth in the state semifinal on Wednesday. Skillings scored twice, while LeSieur had a goal and an assist. Both players are semifinalists for the Travis Roy Award, which is given to the state’s best senior Class A player.

“We all work up to (this game); we just execute on the ice so we can keep going,” Skillings said. “This team just stays together, no matter what, and we just keep going.”

“(Saturday) is just about taking care of business. Every team hates us, we just have to come in and do what we do. The train doesn’t stop here.”

Thornton Academy (19-1), Class A’s top seed and the unanimous No. 1 in the Varsity Maine poll, has more offense than just LeSieur and Skillings. Fellow forwards Max Siebert, Jake Allaire and Ryan Gagnon, and defenseman Brennan Tabor, have all tallied 20 or more points this season.

“The depth (is key),” Thornton coach Jamie Gagnon said. “It can be somebody different (scoring) every single night. It takes contributions from everybody. If someone has a down night, they know someone else is going to pick them up. We can play three lines and not have much of a jump off. I think that’s a big difference in high school hockey.”

Cheverus/Yarmouth (14-6), the second seed in Class A, also features a pair of strong forwards in Ben Dumais and Hakon Yeo, who have tallied nearly 30 points apiece this season. Both are also Travis Roy Award semifinalists.

After establishing itself at Class B’s premier program, Cheverus/Yarmouth has faced challenges in its first season in Class A, including a stretch of five losses in six games — bookended by a pair of setbacks to Thornton Academy, 4-3 in overtime Jan. 10 and 4-0 on Feb. 5.

Cheverus/Yarmouth has rebounded to win its past seven contests.

“We hit a skid, and we talked a lot about team culture and we talked about what it means to come together for each other and support each other through tough times, and learn to just keep the eye on the prize and not get too far away from what our principles are,” Cheverus/Yarmouth coach David St. Pierre said. “And we kind of refocused ourselves, and I think it worked. I think we figured out how to win together as a family, and that’s been a big difference for us.”

Cheverus/Yarmouth has also had strong play in net from Ashton Additon, who made 26 saves in the team’s 1-0 win over Lewiston in the state semifinal. Before this year, Additon and Dumais played for now-closed St. Dominic Academy.

BATTLE FOR CLASS B

Hampden/Ellsworth/MDI/Nokomis (14-6-1), the third seed in B North won both of its playoff games — over No. 1 seed Messalonskee and No. 2 Cony — in overtime. The latest win, a 2-1 victory over the Eagles in the B North final on Wednesday, gave Hampden Academy its first regional championship since 2003.

Multiple players have stepped up for the Broncos in the playoffs. Junior defenseman Brody Miller scored the game-winner against Cony in the quarterfinals. Against Messalonskee, sophomore Wyatt Allen netted the game-winning goal, and Miles Shields tied the game with a third-period goal.

The York co-op (17-4) reached its first state final since 2017 with a 4-2 victory over Gorham/Massabesic in the B South final on Wednesday in Portland. The Wildcats experienced a few rough patches earlier in the season but enter the state title game on an eight-game winning streak

“We had a couple of games where we didn’t play very well, and we kind of had a moment where (we said) let’s assess where we’re at, and (decided) that we were letting a lot of stuff get to us that shouldn’t have, and then we just started to chip away from period to period, and kind of kept it simple,” said York coach Peter Douris. “And at that point, it was probably about four or five games in, I was like, if we play like that, there’s not going to be many teams that can beat us on a given night. Because we had everything. I think we have good goaltending, from there out, good defense and a lot of hard working forwards.”

York, which includes players from Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach, has been led by a strong senior class led by forwards Brett Aceto (17 goals, 11 assists), Bronson Eldredge (8 goals, 12 assists) and Joshua Neal (5 goals, 15 assists). Fellow senior Connor Parent (2 goals, 12 assists) has also been one of the top defensemen in Class B South.

Senior goalie Connor Thibault brings a 1.44 goals-against average into the state final, and he made 24 saves in the state semifinal against Gorham/Massabesic, 13 of which came in the third period.

Staff writers Jimmy James and Cooper Sullivan contributed to this report.