Riverside

Regular Season Record: 8-9-1

#5 in Class B Final Heal Points

Post Season Record: 0-1

The 2012-2013 season began with high expectations with thirteen seniors on a seventeen person roster. It also would be the end of an era as Orono Hockey on its own. With only four returning players and two incoming freshmen, we have had to think outside the box and extend ourselves to Old Town High School for the opportunity of a cooperative team for the future.

This season also ends the stellar eighteen year career of head coach Greg Hirsch and assistant coach Blair Marsh. Greg Hirsch ends his career with over 260 wins, five Eastern Maine Championship appearances, two Eastern Maine Championships, two State Championships, and three Coach of the Year honors. Most importantly, he came on thinking it would be one or two years and stayed for eighteen years. That says volumes about how he feels about the players and he coached and the community of Orono. Greg and Blair made a terrific team and the players really enjoyed playing under their guidance and leadership.

The team received two transfers from Old Town that gave them an extra boost on our top two lines and we had the top goalie in Class B. They got off to a 2-0 start with lopsided wins over Old Town and Houlton/Hodgdon but ran into a very good John Bapst team that beat them soundly 7-1.

Erratic offensive play and inconsistency in general plagued this team throughout the season. They never really got into a good rhythm. A mid-season team discipline issue reduced the number of active players to eleven for a five game stretch. It was a stretch that defined the team in many ways. They went 1-3-1 during that stretch with a win over Lawrence and a huge tie against Class A Skowhegan whose record at the time was 10-1. The eleven remaining players during that five game stretch played extremely hard and well. They did everything they could to remain competitive but at times were just worn down in the third period.

The playoffs put us as the #5 seed and that sent us to PIA in Brewer for a matchup against #4 seed Hampden Academy Broncos. We lost to Hampden 3-1 and 3-0 during the regular season. It was a terrific high school hockey game with teams going back and forth with scoring. Each team had one goal leads throughout the first two periods but going into the third period, the teams were deadlocked at 3-3.

Orono would strike first in the final period with a single goal, and Hampden would answer with eight minutes left to tie it at 4-4 and then would get the go-ahead and eventual game winner with 4:44 to go in the game. The season came to an end with a tough 5-4 loss to a very good Hampden team. Each team took one penalty and played solid hockey. Not the result we wanted but we played a very solid game which was equally matched by Hampden.