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If you would like to see a men’s hockey game between the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire mean something, you’ll be in heaven this weekend. The Black Bears go on the road this weekend to play two games in the Granite State — one in Manchester, one in Durham — against the Wildcats and first place in Hockey East on the line.
UMaine will go into the weekend ranked No. 1 in the U.S. College Hockey Online Poll, but No. 2 in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll, sliding one spot after a win and a tie against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell last weekend. The team’s record is 20-2-4, 10-1-3 in Hockey East. UNH is ranked fifth in both polls, with a 17-5-3 overall record and an 11-3-1 Hockey East mark.
UMaine coach Tim Whitehead feels Saturday night’s first game at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester will be an exciting environment.
“It can’t hurt us,” Whitehead said. “We were really ready to go for our game in Portland, I’m sure they will be for this one. It’s exciting to play in a different arena, and it will be a lot of fun.”
The building seats 10,500 fans and the game is sold out.
If you don’t have a ticket though, you’re not out of luck. Saturday’s game will be broadcast by WABI-TV in Bangor, and Sunday’s game will be on Fox Sports Net New England as the Hockey East Game of the Week.
“I think it’s great, because it is rare for [Maine] road games to be on TV,” Whitehead said. “It’s great too because UNH/Maine games are always sold out, no matter what rink it’s played at. It’s a great opportunity to create more enthusiasm over the rivalry.”
The Black Bears have won the only confrontation between the two teams so far this season. UMaine took a 2-1 overtime win at Alfond Arena Nov. 22 on a Martin Kariya goal. These games are important because the two teams are part of a three-way tie atop Hockey East with Boston College going into the weekend. UMaine has one game-in-hand on UNH and two games-in-hand on BC.
UNH is coming off of a weekend split with Boston University. The Wildcats lost at BU 5-2 on Thursday but picked up a 3-0 win at the Whittemore Center in Durham on Saturday. Junior goalie Mike Ayers made 38 saves in the shutout.
Ayers is a major key to UNH’s success. He is 16-5-3 in 24 games played, with a 1.99 goals against average and a .932 save percentage.
Up front, UNH is loaded. Senior Lanny Gare has surprisingly been the leader this year. He is second in Hockey East in scoring with 14 goals and 23 assists for 37 points. The only man ahead of him is UMaine’s Kariya (13-27-40). UNH also has senior Colin Hemingway (13-16-29), breakout sophomore Prestin Callender (9-12-21) and the 2002 Hockey East Rookie of the Year Sean Collins (13-5-18).
“They have a great stable of forwards, so we’ll need to be sharp,” Whitehead said. “They have a lot of weapons. But we’ve seen them and played them tough each time. They play us tough as well. It should be a typical Maine/UNH weekend where each game goes down to the wire.”
The defense, already one of the best in Hockey East, got a major boost at the end of December when senior Garrett Stafford re-entered the lineup. Stafford missed the entire first half of the season because academic problems rendered him ineligible for the entire fall semester. He has played eight games and has five assists.
One interesting decision for Whitehead will be which goalie he goes with.
“Jimmy [Howard] had the better of the last two weekends, but I’m very confident that Frank [Doyle] will play well in his next game,” Whitehead said. “When you get down to the end of the season, you need to do what it takes to put yourself in position to win games, and that changes from week to week. We may do one thing one weekend and do the complete opposite the next. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We are going to focus on the first game and try to steal some points on the road.”
Howard has won his last two games, stopping 35 and 34 shots, respectively. Doyle has been in net for the two recent ties. He stopped 20 shots in a 5-5 tie at Merrimack and 30 last Saturday against UMass-Lowell in the 4-4 draw.
Bangor Daily News