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With just four regular season games remaining, the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team will travel to the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Mass., for a match up against the UMass-Lowell River Hawks.
UMaine comes off of an important sweep of Providence at home, allowing them to stay in the hunt for the Hockey East regular season title.
“We’re excited about how we’re playing right now,” said UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead. “We want to continue that down at Lowell, and if we are fortunate to be in a position to challenge for the championship, that would be awesome.”
The Black Bears are trailing the Boston College Eagles by five points in the Hockey East standings and have positioned themselves as the only two teams with a shot at the regular season title. If UMaine can pick up at least one point on BC this weekend, it will set up a showdown for the championship at Alfond Arena on March 5-6, capping off the end of the regular season. BC is playing a home-and-home series with New Hampshire, which puts UMaine fans in the abnormal position of rooting for their archrival.
“I think we need to start scoreboard – watching a little bit,” Whitehead said. “We find ourselves in the unusual position of rooting for New Hampshire this weekend for at least a tie, if not a win. Of course, we have to do our part to get as many points as we can on the road, but certainly we’re looking for a little help from our friends across the border.”
Last season, UNH stole a regular season championship from Boston College in the final weekend of the regular season, tying and beating BC in a home-and-home to take the regular season championship themselves.
But UMaine has to take care of business itself against a UMass-Lowell team that has had a problematic second half.
On Jan. 30, UML announced it had to forfeit five wins, including three Hockey East games due to the use of an ineligible player. Since then, the River Hawks are 0-5-3. The forfeits have knocked UML from the hunt for home ice in the Hockey East Quarterfinals to fighting to stay alive for the postseason. But Whitehead feels that’s deceptive.
“They are in seventh, but they’d be in fifth if they had those six [forfeited] points,” he said. “We beat them earlier, so they will be looking to take some wins from us. It’s going to be challenging, especially in their rink.”
UMaine beat UMass-Lowell easily 4-0 at Alfond Arena on Nov. 16, but Whitehead said that game was not indicative of UML as a team.
“I don’t think we saw their best game, for whatever reason,” Whitehead said. “I think we played a very thorough game against them, but we know it’s going to be much tighter at their rink and will be tough to steal points.”
The River Hawk can score, and have done so over the course of the year. The team is led on offense by four sophomores. Elias Godoy leads the team in scoring with 17 goals and 20 assists for 37 points. He is helped by Ben Walter, 17 goals and 16 assists, Andrew Martin seven goals and 21 assists, and Danny O’Brien 7 goals and 14 assists.
Another youngster is leading the defensive corps. Freshman Cleve Kinley has stepped up to be a steady defenseman and the most offensive blue-liner with four goals and nine assists. Stay-at-home senior defenseman Jerramie Domish, who has one goal and seven assists, and junior Peter Tormey, who has three goals and two assists, are also important to the back line for the River Hawks.
UML head coach Blaise McDonald has used a tandem in net in the second half of the season. Sophomore John Yaros, a transfer from Army who became eligible at the end of December, has played well in nine games. He is 3-4-1 with a 2.76 goals against average and a .907 save percentage. Junior Chris Davidson, who started most of the first half of the season, is 8-9-5 with a 2.72 goals against average, a .900 save percentage and two shutouts.
The Black Bears will have the reigning Hockey East Rookie of the Week on the ice in Michel Leveille. After a weekend with one goal and four assists against Providence, Leveille was honored with the award for the third time this season. He was also named the Hockey East Rookie of the Month for January.
“He had to sit out all of last year, and said he was a little rusty,” Whitehead said of Leveille, “he never looked rusty to me. But, with the way he’s playing now, I guess he was, because he’s playing even better now. He’s good at both ends of the rink. He’s a surprisingly good defenseman for how good he is offensively. He’s great at face-offs. He can hit you. He can win a loose puck. I’m very impressed with Michel and how he continues to help our team.”
The Black Bears face off the River Hawks on Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Bangor Daily News