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http://www.pressherald.com/sports/college/hockey/021110umainehock.shtml
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Sunday, November 10, 2002
One goal is enough for Black Bears
By KEVIN THOMAS, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
ORONO -- When you think of a 1-0 University of Maine hockey win at Alfond Arena, the thought might be of a classic victory over Boston University or New Hampshire. But Massachusetts?
The Minutemen, who have never won in 18 games at Alfond Arena, played UMaine close. But the Black Bears, in their Hockey East season opener, improved to 6-1-1 overall as Colin Shields scored in the second period and freshman goalie Jimmy Howard entered the Maine record book with his third straight shutout.
UMass dropped to 2-4, 1-3 in the league. All of Maine's wins have come against teams with losing records. Saturday's close contest may be of some concern because the Black Bears are entering a challenging stretch. Their next five league games are against Northeastern, Boston University, New Hampshire and Boston College (twice).
But if there was concern in the Black Bears' locker room, they weren't showing it.
"They played pretty solid," Shields said of the Minutemen. "You can't go by what they did last year."
Last year, Maine outscored UMass 14-1 in two games at Orono.
But UMass has been sending signals that it is no longer the league patsy. The Minutemen have played teams competitively and have a solid goaltender in freshman Gabe Winer.
"He's a hot goalie and he played a great game," said Maine Coach Tim Whitehead. "We had some great chances but we just didn't bury them. He (Winer) is on fire.
"Fortunately, our goalie is on fire, too."
Howard, who starred for the U.S. Developmental Team last year, made 20 saves, some routine, some during flurries. Regardless, Howard was never caught out of position.
"What I've noticed about Jimmy, during those scrambles in front of the net he's the calmest guy on the ice," Whitehead said. "He stays in front of everything. His composure is exceptional."
Howard set a record for most consecutive shutout minutes (187:23), breaking Blair Allison's mark (147:53) from 1996. Howard also tied Alfie Michaud's team record of three shutouts in a season - and it's early November.
"It's like a dream and I'm waiting to wake up," Howard said. "I'm just having a lot of fun."
Winer also made some dynamic saves, robbing Todd Jackson on a breakaway and sealing whatever openings the Black Bears thought they saw.
"Saves are like hits. They energize a team," Winer said. "We got smoked the last two games here. We stayed close tonight and we'll take energy from that."
The only puck that got past Winer was at 2:38 of the second period. Defenseman Cliff Loya secured the puck in Maine's end and passed it to Robert Liscak. Liscak brought it down the middle and fed Shields on the wing for a slap shot that beat Winer to the short side, just under the crossbar.
It was Shields' team-leading eighth goal and Liscak's eighth assist.
"He just sniped it," Winer said. "He put it where he had to."
That was all the scoring.
"It doesn't concern me," Maine senior captain Chris Heisten said of the close game. "Defensively, we played awesome. We had chances. I thought we dominated the game five-on-five. We didn't get much on the power play - we only had three of them. Other than that, I thought it was a pretty solid game."
NOTES: While Howard is hot, he won't hog the job. The Black Bears still like Frank Doyle very much. Both Howard and Doyle will likely play next weekend when Maine visits Northeastern on Friday and Boston University on Saturday. ...
Maine returns to the Alfond on Nov. 22 for a game against New Hampshire.
Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:
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