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Well, another college hockey season is complete and this one ended just like the last one, with the Minnesota Golden Gophers winning the national championship.
Minnesota has done something very special. They became the first team to win back-to-back championships since 1971 and 1972, when Boston University turned the trick. It’s not easy to repeat, especially when you think about how much talent the Gophers lost last season. Coach Don Lucia’s team lost Hobey Baker winner Jordan Leopold, last year’s national leading scorer John Pohl, and a fantastic four-year starting goalie in Adam Hauser.
The Gophers reloaded with talent like sophomore goalie Travis Weber, who I think is better than Hauser, returnees like Grant Potulny, Paul Martin and Matt Koalska, and possibly college hockey’s most dominant freshman since Paul Kariya – Thomas Vanek.
I’m sure most University of Maine hockey fans are happy with this result, given the alternative was the “University of No Hardware” finally winning one.
Not for me. I wanted New Hampshire to win the national title Saturday night. Now, before you go throwing your newspaper down in disgust, let me explain my reasoning.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it when the Black Bears beat UNH, but I have tremendous respect for their program, their team and their fans. I have a lot more respect for UNH than I do for most other schools in Hockey East. It is a class outfit all the way around.
Dick Umile is a good coach and a good man. He has worked very hard to make UNH the national contender that it is now. Everyone from the UNH athletic department is accommodating and easy to get along with. They are also very supportive of UMaine.
Colin Hemingway is one of the best college hockey players I have ever seen. Sure, he had a down senior season, but he could score goals at will most of his four years. Lanny Gare proved to be a spark-plug player this year, but he’s not one of the players who I personally like. He has publicly stated that he hates UMaine. No one up here can like that.
Garrett Stafford is one of the most complete defenseman I have seen on both ends of the ice a long time, or at least since Peter Metcalf. He made a huge difference for the team, as he missed the first half of the season. The team struggled without him and played much better with him.
And I love Mike Ayers. I don’t normally say that sort of thing, but it applies here. His fire reminds me a lot of Garth Snow, who is still my all-time favorite hockey player. Ayers is one of the most unheralded goalies in all of college hockey, but he gets it done night in and night out.
I’ll never forget the weekend last season when he had his wrist badly cut by a teammate’s skate at Alfond and then played the next night. That showed me all I needed to know about Ayers. I know if it had happened to me, I would have questioned my desire to keep playing hockey. I wouldn’t have played the next night, and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t have put on the show that he did.
Their fans are passionate about their team, just like many of UMaine’s. “White Out the Whitt,” where all of the UNH fans wear white when UMaine comes to town, is still one of the most amazing displays I’ve seen. I wish that our “Blackout” will take off like the “Whiteout” has.
UNH’s program, as it exists right now, reminds me a lot of UMaine’s back in the late 1980s and early 1990s before it won the title in ’93. UMaine’s program had huge fan support and it had to go through its growing pains before it finally won a championship.
The simple fact is that UNH’s program is too good not to have a national title. And it will win one, chances are, a lot sooner than later. And wouldn’t ithave been a lot cooler to beat the defending national champion UNH Wildcats than just beating the UNH Wildcats? I think yes.
Now that this hockey season is over, next season is just around the corner. The late signing day is this Thursday, and UMaine should end up with a pretty impressive class of incoming freshmen next season. I can’t wait.
Is it October yet?
Bangor Daily News