AUBURN — Bailey Drouin said he didn’t like playing against Lucas Perry when the two were rivals on the ice. Perry said it was just two big guys going at it.

Now on the same team, the hulking defensemen are going at opposing teams together, and dealing with the incoming dislike as a blue-line duo.

Drouin, a junior from Oak Hill, and Perry, a senior from Leavitt, now form the top defensive pairing for the newly formed Poland/Gray-New Gloucester/Oak Hill/Leavitt Kings, which sits at 6-4-1 and in the thick of the Class A North playoff race with just over one-third of the season to play.

“The first week, I hadn’t really made pairs, and wasn’t sure if I was going to split them up to kind of strengthen the pairs,” Kings coach Joe Hutchinson said. “Once I knew what I had, I knew that I had enough where I could (put them together).”

Hutchinson, who coached Perry as the head coach at Leavitt, and who saw plenty of Drouin when his team teamed up with the former Poland/Gray-NG/Oak Hill 26ers for summer sessions, knew he had two quality defensemen when the two teams merged. When he felt comfortable pairing freshman Nate Marcotte with junior Parker Springer as a second pairing, he had himself a top pair tough enough to take on what Class A North offenses had to offer.

“Going into it I was a little bit skeptical, but it’s kind of grown out to be something that’s great,” Perry said. “It didn’t take long at all. We just kind of got to know each other a little bit, sat next to each other in the locker room, talked a bit and just kind of jived a little bit.”

“They pretty much clicked right off,” Hutchinson said. “They’re both good offensively, so they got offensive skills, and they’re good defensively. The offensive skills really show how they work together and pass the puck well, make good decisions with the puck, for the most part.”

“Me and him both skate the puck up quite a bit,” Drouin said.

Perry has the better offensive numbers at this point in the season, scoring a pair of goals to go along with six assists. Drouin has the same number of goals, as well as three assists. Both players have plus-5 plus/minus ratings, meaning the Kings have been better on the scoreboard with them on the ice.

The offensive numbers may not look staggering, but the plus/minus in part tells the story of what the pair has done defensively, especially against the opponent’s top line.

“Whenever they’re out there, we’re out there,” Perry said. “There’s definitely a lot of pressure on us to hold down the fort, I guess.”

The Kings have been outscored by two goals this season, but taking out an 11-0 loss to Lewiston, they’ve given up 31 goals combined in their other 10 games.

“They’ve been one of the keys,” Hutchinson said. “They have to play the big minutes against the big forwards, and they’ve done a pretty good job,” Hutchinson said. “Our record’s not what it is because those guys haven’t shut those guys down. As long as they’re shutting them down, then we’ve got a chance to win games. So far that’s been the formula, and it’s worked. Not going to stray from it. Those two guys have done a great job against the lines, other than Lewiston, but we won’t talk about that.”

That both players are bigger than most of their opponents helps them stand out — even if Drouin tries not to.

“I’m not really an enforcer. I’m just kind of a gentle giant, they call me,” Drouin said.

“I don’t know, he’s pretty hard to go up against,” Perry said. “He’s about 6-4, 6-5 on skates.”

“He’s pretty rugged, too,” Drouin added.

“Physically, they’re able to out-muscle a lot of their opponents,” Hutchinson said.

Perry has accrued 16 penalty minutes on eight minors. Drouin has added 10 penalty minutes on five minors — numbers Hutchinson called “normal” for defensemen.

Perry said he’ll dish out hits when he has to, but he’d rather be an offensive defenseman. The Kings want him to be, too. The pairing starts on the team’s top power-play unit, and their shots from the blue line are an added wrinkle to the man-advantage.

“I’m surprised they haven’t scored more than they have so far,” Hutchinson said. “They’ve been part of the offense, they’ve gotten some good shots, just goalies are making the saves. It’s hard to score from the blue line these days.”

When the two players have scored, the Kings have usually won. Of their combined 13 points, 11 have come in wins.

And wins have come more often than both players were used to last year, when neither team made the playoffs and the 26ers went 0-18.

Drouin said he’s happy to have that winning feeling this season after being on a winless team last year.

The present had been better than the past for both players, but the future — that’s where they get sad again. Perry will graduate after this year, meaning the Kings’ twin towers will have just one season together, leaving the duo that used to duel to wonder what could have been.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

Lucas Perry, left, and Bailey Drouin of the Poland/Gray-New Gloucester/Oak Hill/Leavitt hockey team.