Things almost went according to plan last night, but after coming up
just short and the disappointment that naturally comes with losing by
one goal in the national championship game, there really isn't much to
complain about.

For starters, few here would have believed it had we said before the
season started that we would appear in the national championship game.
We were supposed to be rebuilding, right?  Of course we were.  Turns
out that our goaltending was even better than we thought and the
emergence of some on our blue line helped stabilize things.  However,
we *were* rebuilding up front and that inconsistency up front of
scoring goals did hurt us at times.  It just underscores how good our
goalies and defense actually were.

Losing is never easy, but what will haunt Coach Whitehead and his staff
is that Maine played well Saturday.  I agree with those like Bob Norton
who say Maine got beat at their own game.  Denver and Maine went
toe-to-toe and kept each other away from the front of the net and the
goaltenders picked up the rest.  If not for one guy who got free on one
power play, they might still be playing.  But at the end of the day,
Maine played their game and simply got beat.

You can't complain about the power play.  It's been brutal all year,
but especially in the playoffs.  It is probably mostly mental at this
point, not having the confidence.  Much like the off-season helped
erase the memories of the 2003 collapse, this off-season will hopefully
to serve to wipe this memory away too.  But it wasn't like the power
play didn't show up Saturday, it's been missing for weeks.  We've won
without it before.

You can't complain about the officiating.  The rule may stink, but the
rule was followed on Maine's disallowed goal.  Give Maine credit for
not using it as an excuse -- because it wasn't.  I can't believe the
ref gave Maine a 5x3 to end the game, but he called the penalties that
had to be called.  That's pretty unusual in itself.

You can't complain about the class of our players and coaches.  I
thought Tim Whitehead's comments rang very true.  He didn't hide his
emotions and how he felt, but it didn't come across as arrogant or
defiant -- just classy and personal.  The players, who still were
stunned from losing 1-0 in a game I truly believe they all thought they
would eventually tie, represented the program well and they did not
make excuses.  Yes, they lamented their lack of ability to score goals,
but they took nothing away from Denver and they did not use the
disallowed goal as an excuse.

We all want to win.  As Todd Jackson rightly said on Friday, and as
Shawn Walsh himself said, the University of Maine plays for national
championships, period.  So in that sense, as a program Maine did not
achieve their goal.  But as the curtain falls on this season, it is
hard to say anything negative about where the program stands.  In the
six years that we've returned to the national tournament stage after
the NCAA problems we've appeared in THREE National Championship games,
FOUR Frozen Fours and have made the NCAA Tournament all six years.
Yes, we'd like to win them all, because you never know if you'll get
there again.  But all signs point to our program being healthy and
strong.

And it's hard to complain about that.

Thanks for the memories!

---
Deron Treadwell - [log in to unmask]