Well, from what I heard listening to the game Saturday and from what
I've read this morning, there is definitely cause for some hope in
Black Bear nation today!

In case you missed it, Maine beat UMass 4-0 Saturday in by accounts of
people who were there was a more spirited effort.

Whitehead changed things up, he took Lyall, Greyeyes, Barnes and Mullin
out and inserted Pretin Ryan, Ben Murphy, John Ronan, and Paul Lynch.

But perhaps the most significant move was moving Tom Reimann back to
play defense.  Whitehead called this a move to "stabilize" the blue
line corps.  He figured that Reimann, as a senior, who is a good skater
and has good hockey sense would be able to get the puck up ice.  By all
accounts this was a success, and I hope we'll continue to see it.

It sounded like Ryan and Lynch brought a physical presence and I know
Greg Moore had at least one outstanding hit.

As a friend told me, it doesn't matter if this game was against UMass
or against Bangor High -- Maine needed a win.  He's right!  The most
important part of this game is that Maine won and hopefully will start
to restore some confidence.

What can you say about this weekend coming up?  BU needs to take 3 of 4
points to earn home ice *IF* Providence beats Lowell Friday.  BU can
give Maine problems because of their tenacious forecheck.  But by all
accounts Maine cleaned up their game some Saturday, they protected
Frank Doyle (who helped set a new record for most shutouts as a team in
one season) and created plenty of action on the other end of the ice.

I know we've all agreed that the goaltenders are not at fault, but
Frank Doyle deserves to start Friday.  He had to make several odd man
saves in the first period when the score was 0-0.  If he doesn't come
up big, Maine might have been behind the eight ball.  Maine needed a
big performance and Doyle gave it to them and he deserves to be
rewarded.  Fan the flame that is the hottest.  I don't think it would
be a bad thing to make Jimmy Howard a little hungry to play either.

It looks like Maine will be hosting either Merrimack or UMass in the
Hockey East Quarterfinals.  Hockey East is so deep that neither of
these teams will be easy.