The following article appeared in the Tuesday edition of the Bangor Daily News
http://www.bangornews.com
 
Bears may have to practice at Bouchard Arena
By Larry Mahoney, Of the NEWS Staff
A tad over five months ago, Marcus Gustafsson converted his own rebound into
Maine's second NCAA hockey championship in seven years. Maine beat Hockey East
rival New Hampshire 3-2 in overtime at The Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim.
Today, Maine begins its quest to become the first team since the 1972 Boston
University Terriers to win back-to-back national championships.
The Bears, 31-6-4 a year ago, will begin dry-land training leading up to the
Oct. 16 opener against the University of Minnesota at the Alfond Arena in
Orono.
Forty-four-year-old Shawn Walsh begins his 16th season as head coach, boasting
a 352-195-32 record and nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
"The biggest thing we have to do is make sure everybody understands that our
focus has to be on improvement in the present," said Walsh. "It's easy to think
you're good or to mentally reach back into the past and think it's just going
to happen.
"The bottom line is we need to be better," added Walsh.
Step one will be dry-land training.
"One of the things the ESPN announcers and NCAA production people who covered
us in the tournament said is that we may have been the best conditioned team in
the country," said Walsh. "I want to play that audio to our players because
that's something we can focus on right now."
Dry-land training also gives the new players time to bond with the veterans and
develop the necessary camaraderie.
"We've got to make sure the guys are respectful of the work it took to
accomplish what we did last year and the terrific camaraderie and great
leadership that made it happen," said Walsh.
The Maine coach expects captains Cory Larose, Brendan Walsh, Ben Guite and Jim
Leger to provide quality leadership and reinforce the respect he deems
necessary for success.
"We need to have respect for each other, the campus community and the people
who work in the arena. The fact is nothing is going to be handed to us,"
stressed Walsh.
Since new boards will be installed in the Alfond Arena, the ice won't be
available until late in September, so Walsh said they will try to obtain some
ice time at Brewer's Bouchard Arena.
"It's not my first wish, but we'll get around it. You don't worry about
problems, you worry about solutions. We'll do more roller-blading to get the
skating muscles ready for the season," said Walsh whose team will have its
first on-ice practice on Sept. 25.
Maine did graduate two of its top three scorers in Titan First Team Eastern
All-Americans Steve Kariya and defenseman David Cullen. Gustafsson, tied for
fifth in scoring, also graduated. In addition, goalie Alfie Michaud, the Most
Valuable Player in the Frozen Four, elected to pass up his senior year to sign
with the NHL's Vancouver Canucks.
But 16 lettermen return, led by 52-point producer Larose and 42-point man Dan
Kerluke. Walsh said he is "excited" about his freshman class.
"We didn't lose a lot of players but we lost some real quality. However, we
have quality coming in," said Walsh.
The freshmen forwards are Martin Kariya, brother of Steve; Lucas Lawson and
Robert Liscak; the defensemen are Cliff Loya and Mike Schutte Jr. and the
goalie is Trapper Clark.
In addition, redshirt freshmen forwards Tommy Reimann, Ed Boudreau, Gray
Shaneberger and Troy Kahler and goalie Matt Yeats will battle for ice time
after practicing with the team last year.