Improved Black Bears eager to win
By Larry Mahoney, Of the NEWS Staff

Improved Black Bears eager to win

The University of Maine's women's hockey team has made steady progress under
fourth-year head coach Rick Filighera but the improvement hasn't shown up on
their won-loss record.

Filighera expects the scoreboard to verify the improvement this season.

"We will have a chance to win every game. That's not to say we're going to.
But we will be able to stack up against everybody and that's what's
exciting," said Filighera.

Why so much optimism from the coach of a team that went 6-19-2 overall,
3-19-2 in ECAC play a year ago?

"For the first time, we're three lines deep up front," began Filighera. "We'
ve got somebody with speed, somebody who can score and somebody who is a
digger on our top three lines. And our fourth line will be a lot better than
our fourth line was a year ago.

"We will be able to create more scoring chances and score more goals. We
were able to hang in a lot of games with our defense last year but we couldn
't generate enough scoring chances to give ourselves a chance to win," added
Filighera,

He also likes the fact he has four veteran defensemen along with three
impressive goalies.

Junior goalie Amanda Cronin said opponents will have trouble finding
weaknesses to exploit.

"We've always had one or two weak links but not this year," said Cronin. "We
've got a lot of depth."

Maine also has momentum on its side according to captain Kelly Nelson, a
senior defenseman from South Lyon, Mich.

"We lost to Brown (2-1) in overtime and beat St. Lawrence and Cornell to end
the season and that gave us added optimism for this season," said Nelson.

Brown was the runner-up in the national tournament.

"Our number one goal this season is to make the playoffs," added Nelson.

The top eight teams qualify.

Despite losing leading scorer Kira Misikowetz (7 goals, 18 assists), who
transferred to UNH, Filighera feels there are plenty of forwards to pick up
the slack.

Junior Raffi Wolf, who had a team-high 15 goals, will center a line between
talented transfer Jarin Sjogren and Lewiston sophomore Cindy Biron (5 goals,
4 assists), who greatly enhanced her strength according to Filighera.

"They will be our go-to line," said Filighera whose Bears averaged just 2.4
goals per game last year.

Junior Andrea Keller (11 & 11), the team's No. 2 scorer, will center
freshman Karen Droog, who had 42 goals in Ontario junior hockey, and
sophomore transfer Cailee Heggestad.

Heggestad, who played at Montreal's McGill University in 1998-99, and
Sjogren, who was the league's rookie of the year at the University of
Calgary two years ago, both played in Canada's Olympic Oval development
rogram last season.

Heady freshman Jamie Hill centers the third line between speedy sophomore
Christine Lane (6 & 3), and either freshmen Meagan Aarts or Emily Stevens.

The fourth line features sophomore Nicole Munro (2 & 5) between juniors
Esther Granville and Jennie Howell.

Nelson (4 & 4), the team's lone senior, will anchor the defense corps with
juniors Tracy Caridade (0 & 8), Lee Ann Irwin, and Lauren Steblen. Freshmen
Naomi Smethurst should also get considerable playing time and another
freshman, Rebecca Ouellet, will vie for playing time.

Junior Cronin of York was 4-12-1 with a 3.74 goals-against average and an
.878 save percentage a year ago and sophomore Dawn Froats was 1-7-1, 4.31
and .834. They will be pushed by freshman Lara Smart.

Maine hosts Bemidji State (Minn.) on Saturday and Sunday at 2.