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http://www.pressherald.com/sports/college/hockey/030331umhocky.shtml

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                     Monday, March 31, 2003

                                            Finally done in by doubt


                        By  KEVIN THOMAS, Portland Press Herald Writer

                      Copyright  2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.





 ANN ARBOR, Mich.  --  While players from Colorado College and Michigan woke Sunday and began preparing for their NCAA quarterfinal game, the Maine team boarded a plane and headed home to Orono. Since 1987, Maine has played in 12 NCAA tournaments, including the last five. Since the tournament expanded to 12 teams in 1988, Maine had always played in the quarterfinals, winning in the first round three times and getting a first-round bye seven times.

   With the expanded 16-team NCAA field this year, there are no longer byes. But no one, whether at the start of the season or midway through it, believed Maine had to worry about the first round.

   This was an experienced, senior-dominated team with a knack for winning big games. Confidence in this club grew quickly, maybe too fast.

   On Jan. 3, Providence ended Maine's 16-game unbeaten streak with a 4-2 victory.

   The Black Bears shrugged and said the streak had to end sometime. Maine bounced back with a seven-game unbeaten streak, although it came against the lower-echelon teams in Hockey East. Maine went 2-0-1 against UMass-Lowell, 2-0 against Northeastern and 1-0-1 against Merrimack.

   Maine, no doubt, was back.

   But the doubts reappeared quickly, and they never went away. After that seven-game streak, Maine never went two straight games without a loss.

   After a 20-2-4 start, the Black Bears were 4-8-1 in their last 13 and lost their last three, capped by a 2-1 defeat against Michigan Saturday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

   How did it happen? Why were the Black Bears arriving in Maine on Sunday instead of playing for a berth in the Frozen Four?

   The quick answer supplied by several Black Bears Saturday afternoon was that the puck did not bounce their way. This was another typical Maine-Michigan battle in the NCAAs, and after Maine won the first three, two in overtime, it was finally the Wolverines' turn to get the last lucky bounce.

   That answer is only partially correct.

   "The guys can't hang their head about that effort," Maine forward Lucas Lawson said. "We played as well as we could and it wasn't good enough."

   The long answer to what happened to the Black Bears is not as easy. They never snapped out of their slump at the end of the season, and that slump cost them a No. 1 seed in the tournament. Instead of playing an easy first-round game in front of a larger contingent of Maine fans in either Providence, R.I., or Worcester, Mass., the Black Bears had to face Michigan on the Wolverines' home ice, a very tough place to play.

   "Home ice was a factor," said Michigan Coach Red Berenson, whose team benefitted from home ice again Sunday in a 5-3 upset of top-seeded Colorado College.

   Maine's downturn had to do with two weaknesses, one of which was unexpected.

   The expected weakness was defense, but Maine hid that weakness well when first-year goalies Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle played sensationally early in the season. When the Black Bears beat Boston College 4-3 in December, BC dominated the game and outshot Maine, 30-22. But Howard stopped several quality chances.

   The goalies stole a few other games, and it looked like Maine's defense would be all right, but when Howard and Doyle showed they were mortal, Maine's flaws were revealed.

   "We're not giving our goalies a chance to succeed," Coach Tim Whitehead said often the past two months.

   Maine allowed 30 goals in the first 18 games, 61 goals in the last 21.

   The second weakness was a lack of resiliency, which sounds strange since Maine had seven seniors. But once the Black Bears started to falter, they could not right the ship. They would play a few good games, then lose the next.

   Senior forward Martin Kariya said the team was panicking.

   Whitehead said the same thing in other ways, telling his players they were trying to do too much. Nerves crept in and Whitehead noticed his players "gripping their sticks a little too tight."

   When Maine lost the opener of its best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series with Massachusetts, the accepted thinking was that the veteran Black Bears would come out in the second game and blow past the young Minutemen. Instead, Maine played tentatively in the first period, fell behind 3-0 and lost 4-2.

   The Black Bears seemed to solve those weaknesses Saturday, which is why the game was so close. But the bounces went the Wolverines' way.

   Whitehead talked about how hard his team played, but he ultimately gave the bottom line.

   "We're obviously disappointed," he said.

   Maine will have to fill some voids next season. But Howard and Doyle return, along with five defensemen who played at least 27 games this season (unless junior Francis Nault signs a professional contract) and seven forwards who were on the ice Saturday. Maine also has lined up some solid recruits to join two players who red-shirted season.

   Expectations might not be as high next season, but as the Black Bears proved, a team can perform quite differently from its expectations.

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

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