(taken from The Maine Campus)
WALSH REFLECTS ON AMAZING SEASON
Black Bears came out of nowhere to become title contenders
by Larry Rogers Jr.
Sports Editor
The team that no one gave a chance.
That sentence describes the 1994-5 Maine hockey team. Very few
people can honestly say they expected Maine to vie for the national crown
this season.
How could they anyway? Just one player returned with any NCAA
tournament experience, morale seemed low after last season's ongoing off-ice
problems and they only had one player back that scored at least 10 goals the
previous year. Maine hockey was at an all-time low.
All this factored into Maine being picked to finish forth in Hockey
East, and not even considered as top-10 material until November after they
tied Boston University and swept New Hampshire.
But what the college hockey folks didn't factor in was the small
things, the intangibles. Things like the outstanding captainship Chris Imes
turned in and the example he set for his teammates, things like a powerful
team camaraderie and the emergence of an All-American goalie.
"I think (Imes) goes down as the best defensemen that has ever
played college hockey," said head coach Shawn Walsh sitting in his office
Monday afternoon. "The way he led us was unbelieveable, the guys fed off
his drive and determination and will to win.
"Allison gave us consistency and he did it in a quiet way," Walsh
added. "After his performance against Michigan everybody in the country
noew realizes how good Blair Allison is."
Walsh sat and talked about his team and what they accomplished this
season with the pride of a mountain climber who had just conquered the peak
of Mt. Everest.
"They were dedicated to prove people wrong, they had the discipline
to carry out our game plan in unselfish ways and they were determined to
come back in so many games and to keep driving ahead."
Walsh cited senior defenseman Dave MacIsaac, who had been a fixture
on the powerplay the last two seasons, as an example of the team's
unselfishness.
"We took MacIsaac off the power play this year because we needed his
energy focused on giving us 25 minutes of defense," Walsh explained. "He
gave us everything we asked of him."
The unselfishness became contagious and very quickly turned the
no-name Black Bears into an elite team once again. Maine caught the
attention of everyone by reeling off a 20-game unbeaten streak, going 15-0-5
[second longest in school history..DT] at the start of the season and rode
the momentum all the way to a share of the Hockey East regular season crown
and the to the NCAA Championship game in Providence.
"They all bought into the game plan. I think there was more there
than people gave them credit for in the beginning," Walsh explained. "They
didn't care who got the credit, the name on the front of the jersey was a
lot more important to these guys than the names on the back."
After losing top scorers Mike Latendresse, Pat Tardif, Cal Ingraham
and Justin Tomberlin of last year's squad, the Bears knew goals wouldn't
come easy to them and they would have to rely on defense and good
special-teams play. The club ended up leading the country in team defense,
allowing 2.6 goals per game, they had the second-best power-play percentage
with a .281 efficency rate and their penalty kill ranked third at .857
Perhaps the biggest key to Maine's 32-6-6 season was the individual
improvement over last season among a host of players. Tim Lovell 23-23--48,
Brad Purdie 29-19--48, Dan [the Wolverine killer..DT] Shermerhorn 25-18--43,
Jacque Rodrigue 11-26--37, Barry Clukey 9-12--21, Trevor Roenick 8-13--21,
Tony Frenette 11-10--21, Jason Mansoff 2-6--8, and Brad Mahoney 4-5--9 all
improved their point production from a year ago. Walsh credited assistant
coaches Grant Standbrook, Guy Perron and Greg Cronin with the individual
improvements.
"The (assistant coaches) have more responsibility than I do in
developing individual talent," said Walsh. He used Purdie, who tripled his
point production and went from nine goals over his last two seasons to a
league-leading 29 this season as an example. "Guy Perron helped Brad make
an adjustment with his shot and ther's an example of the assistant coaches
helping them. (Purdie) became a scoring threat every time he was on ice."
Although Walsh said he typically underestimates his teams, he said
that by December he knew they might be something special.
"I felt that in December when we beat BU twice and tied them in one
week, that we must be better than I thought," Walsh recalled. "Even in the
Michigan game I felt we were the underdog. I think after we beat them I
said, 'Hey we can win a national championship.'"
The outlook already looks promising for next season. The Black
Bears return 18 of the 21 players who were on the ice against BU in the
national championship game including two All-Americans in Allison and Jeff
Tory. Chris Imes and fellow defensemen Dave MacIsaac and Jacque Rodrigue
will be lost to graduation and tough to replace. Imes was an All-American
and Hobey Baker runner-up. MacIsaac was a steady and physical defender,
while Rodrigue possessed a cannon slapshot from the point that produced
seven power-play goals.
Walsh and the Black Bears are already excited about next season, but
the head coach also some concerns.
"I'm just very excited about our prospects," said Walsh with a
smile. "Defensively replace Chris and Dave will be extrememly difficult-you
just can't replace a Chris Imes. Hopefully the improvement with the other
four defensemen coupled with some good recruits will make us a soldid
defensive team."
Highly-touted recruits Dave Cullen, a defenseman, and Steve Kariya,
a forward have already commited to Maine.
The team's goal for next season?
"The last two teams to lose in the national championship game (LSSU
and BU) came back and won it the next year and that's a goal of ours right now."
Black Bear hockey fans now learned no to expect anything less.
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end of article
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Deron [log in to unmask]
University of Maine 1995 National Runners-up
HOCKEY EAST, the top Class of the Nation
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