The Black Bears took a disappointing third place in last weekends Hockey
East Tournament by virtue of a 7-3 loss to Providence, and a 6-0 win over
UMass-Lowell.
 
There can be no question that the loss to Providence was a disappointment,
but it may have been the wake-up call the Black Bears needed.  They had lost
a couple games, but they were realtively meaningless, and they were fairly
close.  Providence throttled them, even though Maine had a 2 to 1 shot
advantage.  Providence exposed what I think had been a nagging weakness over
the last couple weeks, careless play in their own end.  Blair Allison is a
good goal-tender, but his weakness is stopping the one-on-one play (as
proven by Maine's 1-5 shootout record).  That was the case against
Providence, that super line of Quenneville-Kramer-Breem just had their way
with the Maine defensemen.  Providence scared me coming in, and all my fears
were realized in that second period.  Joe Carr called it the "St. Patrick's
Day Masacre!" which I felt was a very appropriate title.
 
Saturday night's consolation game was key.  As a Maine fan, I was beside
myself after the loss to Providence, and I was hoping for a strong respose,
and I got it.  Maine played very well beating UMass-Lowell 6-0, and the best
part about it was not the score, but it was the Maine defense returned to
form.  Granted Lowell had nothing to play for, but this game had to be a
great a confidence boost for Maine.  If they played a sloppy game, I'd say
they'd be in trouble coming into the NCAA's.  They cannot be over-looked as
a title contender, but they are probally not among the favorites.
 
I thought Maine got a good draw.  They get the bye, so only have to win one
game to go to Providence.  They will play the winner of the UNH/Denver game,
and assuming that the seeds hold true, Maine has played UNH well this year,
so I believe that is a good draw, even though UNH beat Maine once this year.
 Once you get to Providence anything can happen, but one possibility is a
Maine/BU Championship game.  Now wouldn't that be something?  The road to
the Championship I believe goes through BU and Michigan.  I believe one if
not both of them will be around late in the tournament, and if anyone is
going to beat them they are going to have to play well.  Thank God that
Maine stayed away from Lake State in the  Regionals.  Anyone who has to play
them has a right to be scared! =)
 
 
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Deron  [log in to unmask]
University of Maine (30-5-6)
Bring the Hardware back to Maine!!