Maine menu edged the University of New Brunswick in exhibition tonight,
2-1.

With LSSU edging Quinnipiac College 2-1 in the opener of today's Black
Bear Classic, QC faces NB in the 4pm consolation game Saturday, and
Maine will host LSSU in the 7pm Championship game.  Both look to be
interesting games.

In the opener, a very young Lake Superior team (15 Freshmen) won an
exciting game over the hard-working QC Bobcats.  LSSU knocked in all
three goals ;-) 95% of Maine fans missed most of this game ...  so I
guess the $2 surcharge over normal ticket price was about right.  ;-(

Speaking of tickets ...  $19 per seat will get you (non-students) into
Saturday's pair of games.  Several hundred seats appeared available
tonight and so are probably available Saturday.  Will all games cost $1
more than season ticket holders paid?  Good policy.  Treat those season
ticket holders with the respect they deserve!

In the "main attraction" at 7pm, the Maine fans showed up pretty well,
with the, now usual, great band and student presence.  Hats off to the
Maine-iaks for continuing their tradition of respectfully singing along
with the National Anthem ...  and tonight with the Canadian National
Anthem also.  Cheers, too, for the Maine Athletic Department
administration for playing both the US and Canadian anthems to start the
main/Maine game.  I hope they continue this throughout the season.
Please?  Cheers, too, for Bananas. You're quite a "showman"!

New Brunswick brought perhaps their best team ever to Alfond Arena.
Their warmup was like every other Canadian team I've seen: no defensive
practice at all, but when they took to the ice, they played great team
defense ...  and great position.  They are obviously very well coached,
and played very well, from goalie through to the forwards.  Some
Canadian teams have come to the Alfond in less than great physical
shape, but this team's performance didn't fall off at all in the third
period.  Very impressive;  well worth a watch at 4pm Saturday.

As I have another subject to write about (under separate cover), I'll
leave descriptions of Maine's performance mostly to others.  If I were
to give the "3 Stars" award to Maine player's tonight, Jimmy Howard
would be the hands-down winner of #1 Star.  This guy is the real deal!
He's Mike Morrison without any rebounds.  OK, he gave up 1 rebound all
night and that led directly to NB's lone goal (no Maine defenders were
in the same time zone).  Maine gave up several odd-man rushes throughout
the night, but that one wasn't;  it was a 2-0 as I recall.  Altogether,
Howard had 27 or 28 saves ...  with most of them being excellent
chances.  My #2 Star would go to Todd Jackson.  Jackson was excellent
last year, but seems to have improved his game and is ready for a
break-out season.  He repeatedly terrorized the NB defense.  My #3 Star
would be Greg Moore, the Freshman forward out of Lisbon, ME.  As with
Howard, and Jackson for that matter, Moore last played for the US
National Under-18 Team.  This kid's going to be good;  well, yes, he's
*very* good already.  :-) My Honorable Mention Star would go to Steve
Mullin (wearing Maine's famous #4, he's got to be good!).  He's ready to
step in and be one of the go-to defenders.  Great player.

Otherwise, I thought Maine played inconsistently, as if this was an early
season exhibition.  Well it was, wasn't it?  I don't personally know
this team, so I don't know what they need to excell, but were I Coach
Whitehead, the 2nd intermission locker room would not have been a
pleasant place to be.  That Maine was tardy returning to the ice after
that intermission could be taken to mean an early season communication
mix up, or an indication that someone had something to say in the
locker room.

Tomorrow, I look for a great NB/QC college hockey game, with my edge
going to NB.  In the 2nd game, I look for Maine's speed to trash the
large, but very young LSSU defense.  But LSSU, will come back with their
1st string goalie (we saw the 2nd string goalie this afternoon), and so
could be a tough opponent.  Will Coach Whitehead come back with an
obviously superb Jimmy Howard, or will Ray Jean get to play maybe his
only game of the year (my conjecture only!) against an opponent many
would expect Maine to beat fairly easily?  I will look for Howard :-)

So that's my game(s) commentary ... and would-be reporters out there? :-)

cheers, wayne

Wayne T. Smith
[log in to unmask]                          Old Town Landing
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