I had my first chance to witness the Black Bears in person since the = 93-94 season. I can certainly say it was a real treat as Maine and DU = put on an excellent display of college hockey. In a real contrast of = styles and size (DU was much bigger than our young Black Bears) both = teams played with tenacity in front of 10,000 plus fans in what felt = like a playoff atmosphere. I have not witnessed any other games this year, so I have no ability to = make any comparisons on how Maine is playing compared to earlier games, = but they look like a team with a chance of giving the rest of Hockey = East fits the rest of this season. As for the return of Coach Walsh, he appeared to be very enthusiastic = with his players. I think Walsh has the ability to motivate these young = Black Bears and may put a spark back into this season. The Air Force game was much more of a ho-hum affair as most of the DU = fans had not yet arrived and the arena was pretty empty. Maine was able = to pretty much have their way with the Falcons and set many tournament = offensive records in the process. The DU-Yale game was another fantastic game (DU with another overtime = victory to win their 5th straight Norwest Denver Cup). On Friday afternoon during the Yale-Air Force matchup, my wife and I = (both UMaine grads) spotted Coach Walsh sitting nearby to us scouting = the game. We hesitantly went up to wish him luck and welcome him back, = not wanting to disturb him too much. Walsh ended up talking with us for = several minutes discussing happenings back in Maine and asking about us = and how we ended up in Colorado. He expressed his joy of being back = with the team and you could really sense his enthusiasm.=20 Welcome back Shawn! Go Blue! Rob E. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.