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This story can be found online at:
http://www.portland.com/sports/college/hockey/020331umaine.shtml

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                     Sunday, March 31, 2002

                                            Intriguing? No question


                        By   KEVIN THOMAS, Portland Press Herald Writer

                      Copyright  2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.









 They are neighbors in northern New England, yet have found themselves playing big hockey games elsewhere.

The universities of Maine and New Hampshire will face off Thursday in the NCAA tournament semifinals at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
    FROZEN FOUR         at St. Paul, Minn.

   Semifinals, Thursday

   Maine (25-10-7) vs. New Hampshire (30-6-3), 1:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

   Michigan (28-10-5) vs. Minnesota (30-8-4), 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

   National championship

   Saturday



 To top of story

Just two weeks ago they played in Boston's FleetCenter for the Hockey East title (UNH won, 3-1).

Three years earlier the schools hooked up in the Arrowhead Pond at Anaheim, Calif., for the NCAA title game (Maine won 3-2 in overtime).

So what do you need to know before Thursday's game? We thought of 10 questions that readers might ask and we tried to answer them.

1. While UNH did beat Maine 3-1 recently, isn't this like 1999, when the Black Bears lost the last two games of the regular season in Durham, N.H., only to come back and beat the Wildcats when it counted?

No. When UNH swept the Black Bears in March 1999, it was in the Wildcats' Olympic-sized rink, where Maine has had sporadic success. The thinking then was Maine was still a better team in an NHL-sized rink.

This year's Wildcats are demonstrating a dominance on both types of rinks. And their win over the Black Bears at the FleetCenter disproves the myth that UNH can't beat Maine in big games.

2. Are there any similarities to the 1999 Maine team and this one?

Sure. Start with leadership. Team captain Peter Metcalf has instilled his will to win into his teammates, much like captains David Cullen and Steve Kariya did in 1999 (as well as team captain Chris Imes did for the 1995 NCAA finalist team).

Then there is the offensive balance. The 1999 team was led by Kariya, an All-American. But people forget he was shut out in the Frozen Four. Others picked up the slack. This Maine team is similar with four capable lines.

And finally there is the solid goaltending.

Matt Yeats and Mike Morrison have been steady, although it is yet to be seen whether one or both of them can elevate their game the way team MVP Alfie Michaud did in the 1999 Frozen Four (81 saves in two games).

3. What is different about this team?

Defense. Maine has allowed 2.62 goals a game. The 1999 team's foundation was defense, allowing 2.24. The 1999 team also was adept at moving the puck up, led by Cullen.

Moving the puck has been the defensemen's problem this year. When pressured, they can go into their bakery-shop routine (making turnovers), leaving Yeats or Morrison to fend off the rush.

4. Who will start in goal, Yeats or Morrison?

You look at the accolades and numbers, and the obvious call would be for Morrison (All-Hockey East first team, school-record .921 save percentage). But those don't tell the whole story.

In 1999, Michaud didn't even get an honorable mention vote in the Hockey East balloting, yet he was the star of the Frozen Four.

Morrison can be spectacular, but he also can move around too much in the crease. Yeats offers more big-game experience and a steadier presence.

As is his custom, Maine Coach Tim Whitehead won't name the starter until the day of the game.

5. What about UNH's goalie? Wasn't he injured?

Michael Ayers injured his wrist Feb. 1 against Maine and was thought to be done for the season with a severed tendon. Ayers played with a brace the next day (a 2-2 tie). He underwent surgery five days later and learned the tendon wasn't completely torn. Although it isn't completely healed, Ayers returned by the end of the month.

UNH has another good goalie in Matt Carney (who beat Maine 4-1 in December), but Ayers seems to give the Wildcats a lift. He started in the Hockey East title game.

The Wildcats can feel good that their only loss to Maine, back on Feb. 1, came after Ayers was hurt and Carney was unavailable because of a concussion. Ayers left with the score 3-3 and Maine won, 6-3.



6. What is the scariest part of UNH's game?

The power play. UNH has the second-best power-play unit in the country (30.1 percent successful). Maine's one win against the Wildcats came when the Black Bears yielded only two UNH power plays (and no goals).

In their other three games against Maine, the Wildcats have scored a total of nine goals, five of them (5 of 13) on the power play. Hobey Baker finalist Darren Haydar (31 goals/45 assists) is the playmaker that makes it go.

7. Is the key to stopping UNH, stopping Haydar?

Not necessarily. UNH brings a lot of dangerous players. Colin Hemingway and Sean Collins both have 13 power-play goals and team with Haydar for a brutal power-play unit. Hemingway anchors the Wildcats' second line and is fourth in the nation in scoring (66 points).

The Wildcats lead the nation in scoring with 4.67 goals a game.

8. Which of Maine's lines is the best?

If you want scoring, the obvious choice is the top line centered by Martin Kariya (16 goals/28 assists), flanked by leading scorer Niko Dimitrakos (20/28) and the emerging Lucas Lawson (17/13). Kariya is the team's best passer, Dimitrakos the most creative forward and Lawson is using his speed and improved shot to his advantage.

Maine's next line can be just as dangerous with Tom Reimann, another excellent passer, centering Chris Heisten and Colin Shields, who has the hardest shot among the forwards.

Robert Liscak, Gray Shaneberger and Todd Jackson form a defensively sound line that can score in a hurry.

Ben Murphy, John Ronan and Pete Falco are three freshmen who bring energy to the ice. They don't always score (although Ronan had the winner in the overtime victory over Harvard last week), but they battle well. It is not a coincidence that Maine had its only two-loss weekend (in February) when this line was broken up. Whitehead immediately teamed them up again.

9. Isn't all of this talk about the late Shawn Walsh still being "present" among his players going a little overboard?

 While references are made about Walsh looking down on his team, with victory cigar in hand, there is more substance to Walsh's influence on this team. A constant battler who preached complete competitiveness, Walsh walked the talk in his fight against kidney cancer. That has had a lasting effect on this group of young men.

10. Is the talk of Walsh taking away from the job that Whitehead is doing?

When Tim Whitehead was hired at Maine, a former colleague said of Whitehead: "You won't find an egotistical bone in his body." That has been true. Since Whitehead took over after Walsh's death Sept. 24, he has provided a balm for the hurting Maine program while always deflecting the credit.

Whitehead quickly declared that he was "not Shawn Walsh Jr." and went about business in his usual quiet way. He does not show the outward fire of Walsh, but has kept the Maine program at the highest level.

Maine officials contend they must open the job to other candidates after the season. But it is hard to imagine the school won't hire Whitehead after the boost he's given this program.

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:

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