PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The losses may have piled up early for the youthful Wildcat hockey team, but a late-season surge did have the squad in contention for the playoffs heading into their final game.
Presque Isle lost its first seven matches, with inexperience being one of the factors. The ’Cats have seven freshmen on the team, with six playing regular shifts and the other serving as the back-up goalie. Of the five seniors on the roster, only two came in with any game experience.
A difficult opening schedule, which included two games against John Bapst and one each against Messalonskee, Winslow and Camden Hills — all teams among the top five in the Class B North division — also played a role.
Still, with a 5-11 record entering Tuesday’s final game at No. 1 Waterville, the Wildcats were in eighth place, behind Old Town/Orono, and a slot out of a berth in the post-season.
“We dug ourselves an early-season hole, but we’ve won five of our last nine,” said PI coach Carl Flynn. “The freshmen are now better conditioned, stronger, faster and more accustomed to the pace of play. More importantly, each player has accepted their individual role to make the team better and we are making fewer mistakes per game.
“The kids kept believing what [the coaching staff] was telling them, they weren’t willing to give up and continued to give 100 percent in practices and games,” he added.
Flynn said the team has done better in its second meeting with opponents with the exception of Messalonskee and Hampden, including beating five the second time around.
“What more can you ask for than that?” he said.
The Wildcats have received stellar play and leadership from three veterans in particular.
Senior Cooper Madore has a team-leading 12 goals, to go along with four assists and Flynn said his value has been immeasurable.
“He is very passionate, hates to lose and has no issues with confrontation if he feels his teammates are giving the same effort,” Flynn said. “He is a very dangerous player and often was shadowed by other teams.”
The Wildcats received a huge blow when Madore suffered a separated shoulder during the team’s home game against Old Town/Orono Thursday, which ended his season.
Junior Denny Young (nine goals, nine assists) has also strung together a solid campaign.
“He has the best hands and stickhandling skills of any player I have ever coached,” Flynn said, noting Young is less vocal than Madore but instead leads by example. “His shot is deceivingly hard and very accurate.”
Senior Jillian Flynn, the coach’s daughter, has been brilliant in her fourth season as the starting goalie. She is bound for the University of Maine at Orono in the fall on an athletic scholarship to play hockey, and Carl Flynn said that has put a target on her.
“It has really caught the attention of our opponents and they want to show they can beat a college goalie,” said the coach. “We know every team is shooting the puck aiming at the top of the net because of her height and they are trying to intimidate her. So quite honestly they are shooting for her head.
“In practice, we need to replicate that, which results in her getting hit very hard at times, but she has been phenomenal and quite frankly won our games against Brewer and Hampden for us.”
She has allowed 53 goals on 468 shots for a goals against average of 3.78 and a save percentage of 90.
The entire freshmen group has come along nicely, with Jake Stevens (five goals, six assists), Bailey York (five goals, two assists) and Thomas Patenaude (three goals, four assists) beginning to score more and Jaren Winger (one goal, four assists) having improved us much as anyone on the roster.
“Although [Jaren] hasn’t scored a lot, he has carried the puck, controlled the neutral zone and has been the most effective in getting the puck out of our defensive zone,” Flynn said.
“We have known all year how talented the freshmen group is going to be and we also knew they needed to understand the style of play and systems used by us and other teams,” he added. “Some were a bit timid at the outset, as expected, and they all needed to get stronger, especially when it comes to battling for loose pucks in front of the net and that has been the difference in the last few games.”
Other Wildcat team members are seniors Jack Andrus, Brycen Libby and Noah Kinney; junior Alex Brewer, sophomores Eric Benson and Colin Daigle; and freshmen Andre Daigle, Riley Kinney and Torey Levesque.
