Maine beat New Brunswick, 2-1, in a fast-moving, exciting game.

New Brunswick was the best Canadian university team I've seen at the Alfond.  Typically, Canadian university teams have emphasized physical play rather than skill, and size rather than speed. This New Brunswick team was almost as fast as Maine (but not as fast as Todd Jackson) and very skilled.  They were also big and physical and used their sticks.  The game was a treat to watch, and the Reds provided an interesting test for this year's Black Bears.

Some observations about UMaine:

Of the freshmen, Jimmy Howard and Greg Moore are the real deal.  Jimmy gave up only one goal on a shot from close in.  I didn't see it, but my wife described it as "very pretty."  ("I know I'm not supposed to say that when the other team scores, but it was a very pretty goal," she said.).  As Coach Whitehead said in the recently issued Friends of Maine Hockey Newsletter, Moore is a complete package.  He skates, he shoots, he plays the body, and he hustled as well as anyone on the ice.

Steve Mullin, a freshman D from Manitoba, also looked very good.  He wasn't flashy, but he consistently paid attention to the man he was covering and didn't let him get by and get into scoring position.  Very intelligent and poised on the ice.

Prestin Ryan was all over the ice and working very hard, but every so often he'd do something stupid, like let a Red forward skate past him or give up the puck on a clearing attempt.  That was a common occurrence among the UMaine defensive corps--again, I think, except for Mullin.

The most exciting player on the ice tonight--at least for a few minutes--was Todd Jackson.  On several occasions, Todd started chasing a puck 5 to 10 yards behind the Red d-man and got to the puck first. Once, while short-handed, he started at the blue line when the d-man was at the red line, but Todd still caught him, gained control of the puck, and got a shot on goal.

Overall observation:   Maine has a lot of skill at forward, but needs to develop a better work ethic.  The Bears were outworked during the second period, and we didn't have a line that matched last year's Massachusetts freshman line (Ronan, Falco, Murphy) for consistent, blue-collar intensity. 

It will be interesting to see who suits up tomorrow night.