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http://www.portland.com/sports/local/hockey/020326crude.shtml

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                     Tuesday, March 26, 2002

                                            Hockey paths meet at Tulsa


                        By   PAUL BETIT, Portland Press Herald Writer

                      Copyright  2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.









When Tony Bifulco and Landon Bathe were 4, they were playmates at the Stepping Stones Nursery School in Scarborough.

"I know it was a bummer of a day when one of them didn't show up," said Cheryl Bifulco, Tony's mother.      [an error occurred while processing this directive]

That was nearly 16 years ago.

Bifulco and Bathe are still playing, but now the game is hockey and they're both playing it in Oklahoma for the Tulsa Crude of the United States Hockey League.

"It's good to have someone I know from back home on the team," said Bifulco, who played at Falmouth High.

Their paths have crossed on the ice before. Several years ago, Bifulco and Bathe played on a state championship team from the Casco Bay Youth Hockey Association.

Two years ago they each spent a season with the Great Northern Snow Devils, a junior hockey team formerly based in Biddeford.

"It's kind of neat," said Bathe, who played high school hockey at Cheverus and Scarborough. "It was fun to already know someone on the team when I got here."

Bathe and Bifulco are the only players from Maine in the USHL, a league for 16- to 20-year-old amateurs.

They joined the team to improve their chances of landing a spot on a college team.

"The level of competition is outstanding," said Bifulco, a defenseman. "It doesn't matter where a team is in the standings, they're still very good. Every player in the lineup is skilled and they come to play every night.

"You have to play your best or you're going to get embarrassed."

Games in the far-flung league are played in a pro setting before as many as 4,000 fans.

Bifulco, 20, was invited to try out for the Crude last summer by Ed Harding, the former Greely High coach who was the Crude's associate coach at the time.

"I went and saw Tony play for Falmouth last year and I thought he was one of the best players in the state of Maine," said Harding, who became Tulsa's head coach after the team got off to a 1-15-1 start.

"He made the team. He was one of our last picks, but he's developed into a steady defenseman."

Bathe, also 20, joined the Crude in December after finishing his first semester at the University of Maine. He went to Tulsa instead of red-shirting his freshman season in Orono.

"I would rather play games than sit out and practice," said Bathe, who already had two seasons in the USHL, "so I decided to come back to the juniors."

Bathe is the son of Frank Bathe, an original Maine Mariner who played defense in the NHL for the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings.

The season hasn't gone well for the Crude, their first in Oklahoma after moving from Dubuque, Iowa. Going into Monday night's game, the team was 12-38-5 and in last place in the 12-team league.

"You still go out and try hard," said Bifulco, who has two goals and leads the team's defensemen with 11 assists. "We've still beaten some good teams, but we haven't won enough to get into the playoffs. You try not to worry about it."

Life in the USHL includes some long trips. For the Crude, that's meant a 15-hour bus ride to Green Bay, Wis., and a 12-hour trip to Sioux Falls, S.D. Tulsa's closest opponent is four hours away in Topeka, Kan.

"It's awfully cramped," Bifulco said. "You're either sleeping, watching movies, reading or talking on the phone. A cell phone is essential. It keeps me in touch with people."

 "It was fun a couple of years ago," Bathe said, "but it's getting old. I just want to go to college and move on."

To remain eligible to play in Division I, Bathe is taking a full load of courses at Tulsa Community College. But he's not sure where he'll be next year.

He may return to Maine, try to join another Division I team or play college hockey in Canada.

Bifulco, who turned down a chance to attend West Point last year, has been accepted at Fairfield, a Division I school in Connecticut, and Rochester Institute of Technology, a Division III school in New York.

"Tony had really progressed," said Harding, who was also an assistant coach at the University of Southern Maine for four seasons. "He really needed to learn how to compete game by game every night and he's done that."

Harding called Bathe one of the five toughest players in the USHL.

"Landon has a competitive edge," he said, "but he needs to learn how to harness it and play physical without crossing the line."

In his first 28 games with the Crude, Bathe had a team-high 162 penalty minutes. Splitting his time between left wing and defense, he has three goals and two assists.

Harding hopes he has helped Bifulco and Bathe get ready for the next level.

"My heart is in Maine," Harding said. "We strive to have a Tony Bifulco or a Landon Bathe down here. I want to help Maine players get better and get them in position to move up."

 Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 725-8795 or at: [log in to unmask]