Boys hockey: Four strong finalists -- and no clear favorite -- for Travis Roy Award

Mar. 15—Similar to the Class A playoffs, there isn't a favorite to win the Travis Roy Award.

"As the teams were — we were all kind of like within each other as far as first through eighth — I think, with the Travis Roy, one through four, you can say it can go either way," Lewiston coach Jamie King said.

Past 10 Travis Roy winners

2023: Mitch Ham, Falmouth

2022: Cullen Adams, South Portland

2021: Owen Drummey, Falmouth

2020: Ryan Pomerleau, Lewiston

2019: Noah Austin, Mt. Ararat/Lisbon

2018: Theo Hembre, Falmouth

2017: Jeromey Rancourt, Lewiston

2016: Matt Caron, Scarborough

2015: Isac Nordstrom, Falmouth

2014: Kyle Lemelin, Lewiston

The four finalists for the award that honors the top senior boys hockey player in Class A are Dylan Blue of Lewiston, Timothee Ouellette of St. Dom's, Kadan Neureuther of Fryeburg/Lake Region/Oxford Hills, and Tobey Lappin of Portland/South Portland/Deering/Waynflete.

All four players are forwards.

The award will be handed out at the Class A Hockey Banquet at the St. John Community Center in Brunswick on Saturday.

Ouellette and Neureuther led all of Class A in points with 36. Ouellette scored 14 goals and assisted on 22 more in 19 games, while Neureuther had 18 goals and 18 assists in 18 games.

Ouellette is looking to become St. Dominic Academy's fourth Travis Roy Award winner, joining Brian Toussaint (1996), Joe Dumais (2001) and Richard Paradis (2009)

St. Dom's coach, Dan D'Auteuil, said Ouellette is more than an offensive point producer.

"I call him a three-zone player," D'Auteuil said. "He was a guy in the offensive zone scoring the points, but he was the guy in the neutral zone clogging it up, and he was one of our strongest defensive players."

D'Auteuil said Ouellette is also a leader off the ice.

"Even in the last game of the year, for example, when we lost, before I can even say anything, he gave a speech to the team about how much they meant to him and how much the season meant to him, how close they all were," D'Auteuil said.

Fryeburg/Lake Region/Oxford Hills coach Wayne Neiman said it's a big for the program to have Neureuther — an Oxford Hills student — as a finalist. No player from any of the co-op's three schools has won the Travis Roy Award or even been a finalist.

"I was hopeful he'd be a semifinalist, for what he has done for the program and as a player in the league himself," Neiman said. "I was kind of shocked, in a good way, that he became a finalist."

The Ice Cats program has only had one semifinalist before this season and it was Owen Galligan last season.

Lappin led the Beacons' program, the first-year co-op between Portland, South Portland, Deering and Waynflete, with 17 goals and 12 assists. He played for the South Portland/Waynflete/Freeport program the previous three seasons.

Ever since Lappin suited up for South Portland, he has been a factor, according to Joe Robinson, who was the head coach at South Portland and the Beacons' co-coach with Jeff Beaney.

"He has been a varsity player and impact player since his freshmen year," Robinson said. "He's our second finalist. Cullen Adams won it three years ago, I think. We had a couple of other finalists — William McGibbon and Andrew Whipple were finalists. In the past couple of years, we have come a long way in our players making a mark on the league. Tobey is no exception to that. Since his sophomore year, he has been in the top 10 in scoring."

Adams won in 2022, while McGibbon was a finalist in 2020 and Whipple was a 2015 finalist. Portland has one Travis Award winner, J.D. Walker in 2002, while Jay Morgan was a finalist in 2003. Cam King was a 2018 finalist for Portland/Deering, and Donato Tocci was a finalist in 2019.

Robinson said Lappin did a good job of providing goals for a team that only scored four or more goals in a game five times this season. That was a change from previous when the South Portland/Waynflete/Freeport was so offensively prolific that even the defensemen pitched in with goals.

"I could see it was frustrating, in particular at the beginning of the season," Robinson said, "but I kept telling him, 'You got the skills, you got the tools, just keep doing what you are doing, it will fall.'"

Lappin scored the game-winning goal in the Beacons' 2-1 win over St. Dom's in the quarterfinals.

Blue, a co-captain, was state-champion Lewiston's second-leading scorer with 15 goals and 10 assists in 21 games, only one point behind his twin brother, Ethan.

"We named him captain this year, the kids named him captain, and he realized the kids do believe in him," King said. "He just got pucks to the net and made things happen. That was critical for him. I think last year we juggled the lines a little bit — we were still young. This year, we made some line adjustments, putting Cody (Dionne) and Colten (Daniels) with Dylan, and that helped a lot."

Blue is looking to become the Blue Devils' fifth winner, joining Ryan Pomerleau (2020), Jeromey Rancourt (2017), Kyle Lemelin (2014) and Cam Poussard (2011).

King said Blue was finally fully healed from a collarbone injury suffered his sophomore season.

"It was nice to see him get back in form this year," King said. "Last year, we were looking to get a lot of points out of him, and he really showed what he can do for us."

Blue had three goals and eight assists in 19 games in 2022-2023.

All four finalists volunteer in the community or at their schools. Neureuther, Blue and Lappin help out at the youth hockey level. Ouellette is involved with the St. Dom's student senate and attended the Western Maine Leadership Conference as a junior. Lappin is also involved in the Catholic Church.

"Again, an award like this, it's great to have those achievements, but again, it shows what these kids or young men do off the ice," Neiman said. "I know Kaden does a lot with the learn-to-plays. Dylan Blue of Lewiston does that. I know Timmy does stuff outside (of hockey), and so does Tobey with his religion. It's good to let these boys be known for more than hockey."

Varsity Maine boys' hockey poll — March 14

Boys hockey: St. Dom's Timothee Ouellette wins Travis Roy Award