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Riding a three-game winning streak, the UMaine men’s hockey team preps for the first of a pair of home series to close out a season filled with adversity.
The Black Bears (13-9-6 overall, 8-6-4 in Hockey East) host UMass-Lowell this weekend before travelling to Merrimack the following weekend. They close out the regular season with two games against Providence at the Alfond Arena during the first weekend of March.
First things first. The temptation is to look beyond Lowell and Merrimack to the Providence Friars, who are currently positioned a scant two points ahead of Maine in the Hockey East standings. It’s a temptation that Black Bear Coach Shawn Walsh isn’t giving in to.
“Lowell is an excellent hockey club,” said Walsh. “They have a legitimate NHL first rounder in (Ron) Hainsey, they play physical and they match up well against us.”
The Riverhawks will land at the Alfond on Friday with their own three-game winning streak and a 5-1-1 record in their last seven games. After starting the season with a 1-6 record in Hockey East, UMass-Lowell has gone 7-2-3 in conference over the last two months to surge into fifth place, one point behind Maine.
They ain’t your daddy’s Riverhawks. Lowell has evolved from its annual cellar-dweller status in Hockey East. The Hawks (15-11-3, 8-8-3) took all three games against Boston University and have lost a pair of one-goal contests to conference leader Boston College.
In their only previous meeting this season, the Black Bears won a penalty-filled contest at Lowell, 2-0. The game featured the return, and exit, of Black Bear forward Niko Dimitrakos.
Dimitrakos had missed the first month of the season due to a wrist injury. He returned at Lowell and immediately made his presence felt in various ways. First, the junior from Somerville, Mass registered his first goal of the season in the second period to give Maine a 2-0 lead.
Next he got involved in one of college hockey’s rarest spectacles-a fight. Dimitrakos picked out the Riverhawk’s star defenseman, Hainsey, for his first collegiate donnybrook. The two traded several punches, were tossed from the game and forced to serve mandatory one-game suspensions.
The feud adds a dramatic element to a series that doesn’t really need it. “This is a big weekend for us,” Walsh said. “We have two games in hand on the second place team (New Hampshire) and they’re only three points ahead of us with BC on their schedule this weekend.”
The mere fact that Maine has the opportunity to finish second in the conference is amazing considering the distractions created by illness and injury for nearly the entire season. The Black Bears, a club laden with first- and second-year players, have negotiated a minefield to get to this point.
“We’ve been playing loose and having fun lately,” said Dan Kerluke, who has scored four goals in the last two games. “We’ll need to play great hockey this weekend to beat Lowell.”
UMass-Lowell isn’t just Ron Hainsey, although the super-sophomore is a vital component to a team trailing only Boston College in Hockey East scoring (3.52 goals per game).
Hainsey, the 13th overall selection by the Montreal Canadiens in last year’s NHL draft, has eight goals and 21 assists on the season. He serves as quarterback on the Riverhawk power play, which converts on 23 percent of its opportunities. At 6-2, he’s a physical presence on the ice and a gifted two-way player.
Senior forward Brad Rooney leads Lowell in points, with 30, and is tied for the team lead in goals scored (11) with sophomore Ed McGrane. Freshman sensation Laurent Meunier (10 goals, 16 assists) and power forward Kyle Kidney (nine goals, 18 assists) round out an offense that is both effective and punishing.
Between the pipes for the Riverhawks is perhaps the hottest goaltender in Hockey East. Jimi St. John sports a 2.35 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.
The Hawks play a physical game and, as a result, lead the league in penalty minutes per game with just over 21.
The Black Bears will be looking to recapture the emotion of the New Hampshire contest on Feb. 4. “That crowd was amazing,” said Walsh. Defenseman Doug Janik concurred. “There was a power play in the third period of that game (New Hampshire) where the crowd was going wild,” said Janik. “I think we kept the puck in the UNH zone the whole power play. Our crowd is like an extra skater.”
Bangor Daily News