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Sunday, April 4, 2004
Such a surprise, that rise, except to UMaine players
By KEVIN THOMAS, Staff Writer
Copyright 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
UMAINE HOCKEY
UMAINE HOCKEY
<img src="http://sports.mainetoday.com/images/blackbears50.gif" height="50" width="50" align="right"><a href="http://sports.mainetoday.com/college/blackbears/">BLACK BEAR HOCKEY
The UMaine Black Bears are in the NCAA Division I hockey tournament. Follow the team's progress as they make another Frozen Four appearance. MaineToday.com's UMaine Black Bear section includes the latest Black Bear news, brackets, message board and more.
ORONO ‹ Todd Jackson could have, but he resisted the urge to say "I told you so" last week.
Six months ago, Jackson sat in the Alfond Arena stands, looking out at the empty ice and insisting this University of Maine hockey team would be worth its name.
This Maine team entered the season with huge holes, having lost eight regulars who accounted for 61 percent of the scoring. Jackson knew what outsiders were thinking:
Face it, Todd, it's a rebuilding year.
Jackson always shook his head at that.
"Any program like this," he said, "you are expected to win."
Well, that sounded nice and gung-ho from the new Black Bears captain. But really, what was anyone to expect?
The Black Bears were chosen to finish fourth in Hockey East. That 2002-03 team had some great talent but the well was drying.
Defenseman Mike Lundin, one of the many freshmen on this team, wasn't sure he would even play, let alone if Maine was going to be any good.
"The buzz was that we were supposed to be in a rebuilding year," Lundin said. "But the older players, from Day 1, would not think like that, and they wouldn't let anyone else think like that."
Six months later, Jackson entered Alfond Arena for practice. It was the first day of April and Maine was one of only four college teams still playing, readying for the Frozen Four at the FleetCenter on Thursday and Saturday.
Jackson is thrilled Maine is again in this position but as he said in October, he's not surprised.
"The thing that stuck out for me early was the character of the guys," Jackson said. "Even before we hit the ice, I had a sense that it was a good group of guys who were willing to work hard. And that's been one of the keys to our success."
The keys
This 2003-04 Maine hockey team has similarities to the 1994-95 team, which tied for the Hockey East regular-season title and reached the NCAA championship game.
That team wasn't expected to do much either. But it had a goalie who turned in an All-American season (Blair Allison), a take-charge defenseman (Chris Imes), a solid leader (Imes) and a gritty group of forwards who found a way to score.
This year's team has two good goalies (Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle), with at least Howard sure to get All-American credentials.
It has a defenseman always out there when needed (Prestin Ryan). It has leadership (Jackson, with assistants Ryan and Jeff Mushaluk) and it has grit on its offensive lines.
The foundation is the goalies. Howard and Doyle have kept Maine in just about every game. Every team goes through slumps but with Howard and Doyle keeping games close, Maine never lost more than two straight.
"We've had some low points," forward Ben Murphy said. "That weekend against Boston College and New Hampshire (two losses, Nov. 7-8) and that weekend in Florida (two losses, Dec. 27-28), where we didn't play very well.
"But it's been the character of the team to bounce back. We're going to give a good effort pretty most every night. And with the goaltending we get from Jimmy and Frankie, it makes it tough to hit a long stretch of losses."
Since the two losses in Florida, Maine has gone 20-3-2. Two of the three losses were 1-0. The other was a 3-2 decision at UMass-Lowell on Feb. 27.
That night, Whitehead uncharacteristically criticized his veteran players for "selfish play," trying to do too much instead of playing within the system.
Maine is 9-0 since.
Whitehead said his team's ability to bounce back and to learn from losses is "a sign of being able to focus and concentrate, and play as a team.
"Unfortunately, those are rare qualities a lot of times in sports, that ability to be consistently at the top of your game."
Whitehead continually makes references to last year's team, one of Maine's most talented on paper but one that underachieved, lost in the Hockey East quarterfinals and in the first round of the NCAAs.
The 2003-04 season
If Maine was in a rebuilding mode this year, it certainly didn't show. In a season-opening tournament in Nebraska, Maine shut out the defending national champion, Minnesota, 4-0, then routed highly regarded Wisconsin, 6-2.
"We all realized we had something," Lundin said.
Maine won five more games and took a 7-0 record and No. 1 ranking to Boston College. The Eagles romped 4-1 and New Hampshire beat Maine the next night, 6-3.
The Black Bears then went undefeated again before dropping two in a Florida tournament.
The team was 12-4-1 and looking mortal with most of its Hockey East schedule to go. Last year's team folded at the end (4-8-2 in its final 14 games). How would this younger, less talented team respond?
The leaders
This team has responded with the leaders leading. Strange how last year's team had more seniors, and this year's team was stronger in the clutch at the end.
"We lost so many seniors and leaders from last year's team, we were wondering where our leadership would come from this year," Whitehead said.
"I'm very impressed with our junior and senior classes. They've really been tremendous leaders in how to focus on learning, how to focus on improving, and how to focus on executing a game plan."
In its latest nine-game winning streak, every game has been decided by one goal, one in overtime, one in triple overtime.
In that 2-1 triple-overtime victory against Massachusetts for the Hockey East title, Howard made 63 saves, but deferred credit to the captains.
"After each overtime they were in the locker room, keeping us up, saying someone was going to step up and win the game," Howard said.
Whitehead concurred.
"Our senior leadership that night was very positive," Whitehead said.
It's been positive all year, which is why Jackson can walk into Alfond Arena, his head high and a confident grin on his face. Jackson won't say the words but you know he's thinking them.
He told us so.
Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at: [log in to unmask]
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