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By Matthew Hritz
Staff Reporter
The University of Maine women’s ice hockey team heads into its weekend series with Cornell University looking to build on the tie earned against No. 5 Providence College last weekend, according to head coach Rick Filighera.
“I think [last Sunday's 2-2 tie against the Friars] gives our team a little bit of confidence and something to build off,” Filighera said.
The Black Bears (2-3-1 overall, 0-3-1 ECAC conference play) are in the midst of a stretch of nine games away from Orono. The team does not play in Alfond Arena until Dec. 7, against Wayne State. The road-game stretch began with a 7-2 loss to Providence last Saturday. Lackluster goaltending, poor defensive-zone play and standing around watching the game contributed to the loss, according to Filighera. But he says that some of his players played hard.
“We had about a handful of players who played their best and it was worthless,” Filighera said. “The bottom line is if the team shows up to play they can beat anybody.”
Cornell University (0-2-0) was shutout by Ivy League conference rivals Brown and Harvard last weekend, 3-0 and 5-0, respectively. But Filighera doesn’t place much stock in Cornell’s record because he knows that Cornell faced teams last Saturday and Sunday that would give most teams trouble.
“If we played Harvard and Brown all the time we would be winless too,” Filighera said.
UMaine will also have to play hard over the course of the entire game to beat Cornell, who is 3-1-0 against the Black Bears since the 1998/99 season.
“If we don’t play 60 minutes, they easily can beat us,” Filighera said.
The goal for the team is to get back to .500 before it heads back in conference play against the conference’s second-ranked team Niagara the following weekend.
“It’s very important for us to try and establish what we established [last] Sunday and carry it through for the next little while until we get through the first half [of the season],” Filighera said.
It may be easier for UMaine to establish itself because it will at full strength for the first time this season. Sophomore Emily Stevens of the women’s soccer team and sophomore Rebecca Ouellet of the field hockey team rejoin the team because their respective seasons are finished.
A concern for the Black Bears is a possible injury to Karen Droog (4 goals, 1 assist) who has had some headaches after she took a hit recently, but was feeling better as of this past Tuesday and is expected to play this weekend.
