The following article appeared in today's Lewiston Sun Tribune, at the
following URL:
http://www.sunjournal.com/story.asp?slg=040104Maine


Black Bears back home to regroup
By Randy Whitehouse

Staff Writer

Following a welcome and well-deserved three-day break, the University of
Maine Black Bears returned to Alfond Arena Wednesday afternoon to begin
preparing for their Frozen Four national semifinal with Boston College a
week from today.


"Having a couple of days off was real nice for us, just so we don't get too
burned out," said Lisbon's Greg Moore, who scored the game-winning goal in
Maine's 5-4 comeback victory over Harvard in the East Regional semifinal.
"Everyone's real eager now to refocus and prepare to play again."


"We needed that three days off desperately," said Maine coach Tim Whitehead,
who was named a finalist for the national coach of the year on Tuesday.
"Honestly, we probably needed another day off, but there's a limit to what
we can do considering we have to play next Thursday. We took as much time
off as we could to get as much of a recovery and a recharging of batteries
as we could, mentally and physically."


Whitehead said his team is already playing catch-up with BC in terms of
getting its legs back for the finals. The Eagles lost in the Hockey East
quarterfinals and enjoyed a full two weeks off before they began play in the
Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H.


Maine had to play in two more hard-fought games in the conference
tournament, including a triple-overtime marathon against UMass before moving
on to the Eastern Regional in Albany, N.Y.


"They had a long break which really recharged their batteries," Whitehead
said. "I think that was a blessing in disguise for them. You could see the
extra jump in their step (in the Northeast Regional)."


The Black Bears will hit the practice ice through Friday before their next
day off on Saturday. Another practice is tentatively scheduled for Sunday.
They will then have one more day off for the on-campus pep rally next Monday
and skate one last time at the Alfond on Tuesday before heading down to
Boston.


"We'll be very careful with how we structure our practices to make sure we'
re not overtrained over this next week but also not undertrained. But we've
been through it a lot," Whitehead said.


The coach and his staff have a lot to go through with the team this week,
including figuring out a way to get its defense, ranked tops in the nation,
to shut down BC's No. 1 line, led by Hobey Baker finalist Tony Voce.


Maine will also have to find a way to generate its own offense against the
Eagles' defense, which is ranked second in the country, and improve its
power play, which was 1-for-13 in the Eastern Regional games.


"We've just got to use this rest to our advantage and fine-tune some things
on the power play," said junior forward Derek Damon. "We really need to
establish our forecheck and how we're going to play our neutral zone and
things like that."