We often take it for granted here in the United States because we have been born with it and have lived every day of our lives exercising it. Yet the people of the Middle East are just tasting the fruits of freedom for the first time, and many are fighting for it. Where did this sudden catalyst come from? In the case of Lebanon, certainly the death of the well-respected Rafik Al-Hariri was the flashpoint for many Lebanese to say enough is enough. There is no way that these mass demonstrations would have commenced without the great show of freedom expressed in Iraq on Jan. 30, their election day. Amidst many threats from Islamo-facist terrorists and the continuing violence in that country, 8 million brave Iraqi men and women, young and old, literally risked their lives to vote and to express their freedom. Today, brave Iraqi men continue to enroll in Iraq’s security forces in droves, to serve and defend their new country. Women have been empowered in many arenas of public life, a value practically unknown in the Arab world. We are now seeing ordinary Iraqi’s in the streets demonstrating and protesting the terrorists, not the Americans. A truly remarkable reversal of affairs.

How have these revolutionary changes taken place? These brave people too openly yearn to be free and actively take part in and fight for freedom. The courage and resolve of President George Bush, who made the tough decisions and to continue to see ahead and fight on. Last but certainly not least, our American soldiers who have fought and died so valiantly for a good cause and for these shifts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Certainly the winds of change that are in their infant stages in the Middle East cannot be attributed entirely to the United States. The death of the terrorist Yasser Arafat lead to a break in the Israeli-Palestinian impasse and the assassination of Hariri prompted the Lebanese to finally take it to the streets. However, little would be changed in this region without the American-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Democratic revolution is spreading, and this is good for two main reasons. First, and most importantly, it is in our nation’s best security interests to see anti-American, war-like dictators fall and democracy spread in the volatile Middle East. Secondly, I feel that the values of freedom and democracy over religious or dictatorial rule are far better for the prosperity and future of the region and its people. Military might is not the only way to push these changes. The ideals of freedom do not know borders or boundaries and will spread. Now, more than our military, freedom is what is endangering these oppressive backward Arab regimes and exposing their failed tyrannies. The road ahead is still long and tough, but worth fighting for. Major, permanent in-roads have been made and the pressure must continue towards reform. We are winning, keep going.

Kevin O’Keefe is a senior history major.

Coffee is the second-most heavily traded commodity on the global market, behind – you guessed it – petroleum. It’s the largest food import in the U.S., where we account for one-fifth of global coffee consumption. There are eleven million hectares of farmland worldwide used for coffee cultivation, and each year over 25 million farmers and workers in 50 countries produce the estimated twelve billion pounds consumed annually. Make no mistake: Coffee is big business. So how can it be that farmers worldwide can barely afford food? How is it possible that they can’t make enough to live when we pay $12 a pound?

Before it can be brewed, coffee must be roasted, exported, and re-imported, leading to necessary cost increases to cover production. Frequently, local businessmen in South and Central America intercede as market middlemen and hijack raw coffee. By acting as export intermediaries, they place themselves between small farmers who cannot possibly sell their comparatively low-yield harvests on the global markets and consumer nations. In other words, by acting as the only buyers, they can buy as low as $.30 per pound, and by acting as the only exporters, they sell high, oftentimes four or five times what they paid.

Very few commodities sold at the global level have market conditions as volatile as coffee. Prices fluctuate wildly and rapidly: an overnight frost or especially strong storm in Brazil, the largest coffee exporting nation in the world, can annihilate prices, literally in hours. In the past few decades, mechanizing and modernizing the production process in many countries means that more coffee can be produced more cheaply than ever before. All of these conditions have understandably led to a flattening out of coffee prices.

Enter Fair Trade. Fair Trade is coffee that has been certified by non-profit international organizations as providing a living wage to farmers. Fair Trade organizations work with small local producers in export markets to form cooperative trading blocs: In other words, five hundred farmers working together can negotiate a better price than if they sold individually. This puts the profits in the pockets of the producers and keeps it away from the profiteers.

Opponents claim that it undercuts free trade. Free trade agreements apply only to government market controls: they have nothing to do with these kinds of non-governmental cooperative trading groups. In fact, the market intermediaries are far more harmful to the spirit of free trade than agricultural cooperatives. Thanks to free trade, prices on products worldwide are decreasing. Why not take some of the money saved to make sure that coffee farmers can afford to live? The buying power of $.50 in Guatemala is drastically greater than the buying power of the same $.50 cents here.

Providing more money directly to the farmers has multiple benefits. Extra profits are recycled into community development and environmental initiatives in the affected areas. Keeping production profitable helps ensure that farmers will stick to coffee, rather than more lucrative crops such as cocaine, marijuana and opium poppy. In an effort to meet production quotas, farmers often bring children into the fields with them as free labor. Fair Trade coffee helps to prevent that.

It’s easy to support Fair Trade – just buy Fair Trade-certified coffee. If you’re buying coffee by the cup, opt for a Fair Trade brew: the Oakes Room on campus always has several varieties available. It costs no more than other coffee, but by checking the label for certification you can be assured that the profits are going where they should be. For more information, contact the Progressive Student Alliance on campus, or check out http://www.globalexchange.org/ campaigns/fairtrade.

Steven J. Butterfield is a senior international affairs major.

One of our transgender students is currently participating in the Disney program, despite challenges she has faced as she worked out the details of her employment. She is currently paying double the rent that any other participant pays for housing with Disney. The company requires her to live in a double-single, and does not allow her to seek a roommate. The issue indicates a real hardship for transgendered people who are participating in the Disney College Program.

Thanks to the generosity of many within the UMaine community and beyond, our student has received a $2,500 grant from Wilde Stein Alliance to cover the additional housing fees incurred for the semester. The group raised the money through its recent “Songs for Change” concert and subsequent donations. Without this funding, the playing field would not have been leveled, and this UMaine student would have been forced to decline the internship.

There is currently no law assuring equal rights for transgendered people in housing and employment. Until such a law exists, we call on the leaders of the progressive Walt Disney Company to examine their policies for transgender employees. The company has an excellent track record with gay, lesbian and bisexual persons, and we hope that Disney will take the next step so that all members of the GLBT community may have equal opportunities.

Transgender issues are becoming a part of the greater public dialogue about equality for all people. We encourage UMaine students, faculty and staff to learn more before making judgments on the rights of transgender people. Too often, we allow preconceived notions and misinformation to form our opinions around issues that have a real, human effect on members of our own community. We must educate ourselves first.

The Rainbow Resource Center, located across from the Wade Center in the basement of the Memorial Union, is an excellent first stop for resources about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. Wilde Stein Alliance holds meetings to support and advocate for GLBT students and their straight allies each Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Union. The GLBT and Allies Council meets monthly to discuss climate, educational and policy issues affecting our campus. For more information, visit www.umaine.edu/glbt.

Other excellent campus resources include Peer Educators, the Counseling Center, Athletes for Sexual Responsibility, the Safe Campus Project, Professor Sandy Caron’s human sexuality course, residence hall staff members and numerous other supportive organizations and individuals.

As always, we continue to make ourselves available to advocate for all our students.

Robert Q. Dana is UMaine’s Dean of Students. Matthew Small serves as the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Liaison to the Dean, as well as co-chair of the GLBT and Allies Council.

“The show is always evolving,” said cast member Justin Lander, who has been with the group for three years. “Our goal always is to try to respond to the moment. We do have some shows on events like the Vietnam War, but the themes are timeless.”

The entirely self-supported group came to the University of Maine on Saturday as part of the Maine Peace Action Committee’s seventh “Active Community Teach-In,” presented jointly by the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine. The group performed a show called “How to Turn Distress Into Success.”

Though most of the show featured abstract themes and limited dialogue, the overall message was about the perils of wartime society. Featuring individual pieces such as “The Collateral Damage Dance,” the show tracked the path of a war from initial distress – in this case, the World Trade Center attacks- to success – the war itself. While clearly anti-war, the show used sardonic wit to highlight the issues that lead to war in the first place. Featuring apocalyptic scenery – including an eerily masked actor portraying “Truth” and abstract characters painted on large cardboard cut-outs – and a minimalist set, the performance itself featured an interesting interplay of rhythm, music, chanted and spoken speech and silence.

“They’re a famous, internationally known group,” said prof. Doug Allen, co-founder of and faculty advisor to MPAC. “In the past, we’ve usually featured a guest lecturer or speaker at ACT, but this year we decided to do something creative.” After checking with Bread and Puppet and discovering they were going to be in Maine around this time, Allen says it all came together perfectly.

“People brought so much creative energy, positive energy this year. They are really coming away from this saying ‘OK, what next? What can I do now?’” Allen added that there had already been discussion among some attendees about trying to create a similar group in the area, to creatively address the issues that MPAC focuses on.

Anna Sweeney and Peter Hagopian, two UMaine students who served as volunteers in the show’s production, described working with the group’s full-time cast members as “a great experience.”

“We were only there for rehearsals from about 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.,” Sweeney said, “it was amazing that it came together as easily as it did.”

“We only practiced our parts,” Hagopian added, “so even we hadn’t seen the whole show before tonight. So it was like a nice surprise for us too.”

With music from “Avenue Q,” “Footloose,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Anything Goes” and current Broadway smash “Wicked,” the show kept the audience captivated from start to finish.

Co-producer Anne Schmidt said that turnout for Friday night’s show was fantastic.

“Overall it went great. I’m so proud of the cast, especially considering the short timeline of the show this year. We just cast it on the 17th, and still had one of the best turnouts I’ve ever seen Friday night,” she said.

The 13 pieces were all fantastic. The first show-stopper came with the second number of the night, “I Am a Woman” from “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” This brassy ode to womanhood was performed by Maida Cordero, Amy Smart, Janis Greim – the other co-producer of this year’s show – and Crystal McArthur. The highlight was McArthur’s extraordinary solo.

It can’t be easy to steal the show from Greim, a seasoned performer who was last seen on campus starring as Velma Kelly in the campus production of “Chicago,” but McArthur pulled it off with aplomb. This number was hers from top to bottom. McArthur has a set of pipes that, octave for octave, note for note, nobody else in the show could match. She could have given lessons on projecting to a few of the cast members

A few minutes later, Schmidt ate up the stage like a maniac, a modern-day Momma Rose, promising success and popularity as she trilled her way through “Popular,” from the show “Wicked.” She floated through the staccato highs and lows of this ballad about the power of looking good and being loved for it. It wasn’t hard to tell that Schmidt was one of the best all-around performers of the evening as she lit up the rafters with her voice and the audience with her charm.

The second half had the biggest highlights – and the biggest disappointments – of the evening. Opening was Maida Cordero performing “Dance 10, Looks 3″ from “A Chorus Line.” Cordero nailed the smart, world-wise attitude, but apparently spent so much time learning how to be smugly self-aware that she forgot to learn the music. At one point, it seemed like she missed a line entirely, and by the end the gimmick was more annoying than effective.

First-year student Sara Richardson was both sweet and frisky in spades as she flounced across stage for “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” from “Flower Drum Song.” You may have heard the song in GAP commercials with Sarah Jessica Parker, and Richardson actually looks a little bit like Parker. She brought a natural, easy charm to the number that some others lacked.

Perhaps the best act of the show came when Dominick Varney and Janis Greim belted their way through the dark, moody duet “Dangerous Game” from “Jekyll and Hyde.” This is a chilling and eerie bit of music, so I was a little surprised when they upped the shtick by playing nerdy opponents in an apparently high-stakes chess match who could barely seem to take their eyes off of each other. I was even more surprised when it worked. It lightened the mood enough that the number meshed well with the generally upbeat tone of the rest of the evening, and still gave them a chance to show off some dizzying vocal acrobatics and great stage chemistry.

I’ve reserved my greatest criticism for the master of ceremonies, Michael Thayer. His emceeing was irritating and, inexplicably, featured a sock puppet frog. Unless there was some inside joke that I didn’t get, the frog was more of an aggravating distraction than sidekick. Thayer’s attempts at seeming muddled, confused and wimpy were unfortunately all too effective, and before long he had lost any hope of doing what a good host should – keep the show running – and just ended up making things choppier than they had any right to be.

Still, the complaints are minor and the show overall was a deserved success. The university could use more devoted groups like the Broadway Players to bring such talent, energy and culture to the stage. Here’s to many more nights of Broadway here at UMaine.

Being a lover of all things video game has its costs: There’s the money spent on gaming hardware and software that should have been spent elsewhere; the time spent playing the games themselves, which often trumps activities such as eating or sleeping; and the hours spent foraging the Internet for the latest gaming gossip. It comes as no surprise that there’s a certain stigma attached to gamers. This is bad enough when you’re a teenager, but it’s downright humiliating when you’re in your mid-twenties. So, I do what any intelligent person would do – keep my beloved pastime a dark secret. Only my shrink and the clerk at Electronics Boutique are the wiser.

Last week witnessed a beacon of optimism for gamers in the form of the Sony PSP, released on Friday to an anxious North American market. Since the release of the Nintendo GameBoy – the first widely successful handheld gaming system – in 1988, marketing types have been telling us that subsequent portable systems will change the way we entertain ourselves on the go. Did the battery-draining brick known as the original GameBoy offer me anything aside from a chronic case of carpal tunnel syndrome? Nope. The Nintendo DS, released last fall in the United States, was the first glimpse of a true portable multimedia device of the new millennium. It’s clunky design and rushed initial game lineup overshadowed innovative features such as a dual-screen display with touch screen and built-in Bluetooth networking. Sony’s first foray into the Nintendo-dominated portable market hits the sweet spot with a perfect combination of design and features. This is the handheld gaming system that will finally get geeks laid – it is one sexy system.

First, the bundle: The PSP comes packaged with some useful goodies. For $249.99, you get the system proper, obligatory battery and AC adapter, manuals, a rather nice set of earbuds with iPod-style remote control, 32 MB Sony Memory Stick, wrist strap, padded carrying pouch, cleaning cloth and demo software. The first 1 million to pre-order a PSP also received the “Spider-Man 2″ movie in UMD format. The only thing missing here is a game – if you didn’t buy one of the gaming bundles, that is – which are reasonably priced at $39.99.

Opening the box and pulling out the PSP, the first thing that struck me was how well designed the system feels. Even with the battery in, the weight of the PSP isn’t a hindrance, and the familiar Playstation button layout, complete with analog stick and two trigger buttons, is reassuring. Compare this with the Nintendo DS, which has the uncanny ability to cause severe wrist spasms in mere minutes. It’s not until the PSP is powered up that the most gorgeous aspect of the system is highlighted – the display. The 4.3-inch TFT screen is capable of displaying 16.7 million colors, and it boasts a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. This means that movies on the PSP can be viewed as they were intended – no pan-and-scan funkiness here. Sony included a button to adjust the brightness of the backlight, and even on the lowest setting, the screen is visible in daylight.

For media, the PSP accepts Sony Memory Stick Duo cards and UMD. For those unfamiliar with UMD, they have the appearance of miniature CDs enclosed in plastic housing, not unlike Sony’s MiniDisc format. UMD media are capable of storing up to 1.8 GB of data, meaning that even movies distributed in this format will be near-DVD quality.

The PSP is capable of playing MPEG-4 movies from both the UMD drive and from Memory Sticks, meaning you can rip your favorite pirated TV shows and movies for watching during lectures. The copy of “Spider-Man 2″ that came with the system left me with a puddle of drool on my shirt in no time. Even the stereo speakers output a decent range of audio at a surprisingly high volume with no distortion.

Gaming in the Internet Age is all about multiplayer, and the PSP has a number of connectivity options to accomplish this task and others. The USB port – USB Mini-B cable not included – facilitates connecting the system to a computer where it then acts as a reader for Memory Stick Duo media, allowing a user to copy files to and from Memory Sticks. The PSP also sports an Infrared port for IR connections, although the built-in 802.11b wireless networking means this feature will most likely go unused. The wireless networking has the most promise of any other PSP feature. It allows ad-hoc connections between up to 16 systems at once, and can connect to wireless access points, even ones that have 128-bit WEP encryption.

A common issue with many portable electronics devices is battery life. Thankfully, the Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery used by the PSP offers up to six hours of use during gameplay and up to five hours of use when viewing videos. I got just under five-and-a-half hours of mixed gaming and movie-watching use. The system has a number of user adjustable power-saving options, including display backlight timeout, wireless LAN power-saving mode and an AutoSleep feature that puts the system in hibernation after a certain period of inactivity. To further conserve battery life, a switch on the side of the unit allows the wireless networking to be turned off altogether.

I brought home just one game with the PSP, a fun but seen-it-all-before role-playing game called “Untold Legends,” but I have played a number of them. All the games I tried share one trait: The quality of the graphics is amazing. These first-generation titles won’t push the hardware as much as later games will, but the crisp anti-aliased polygons and beautiful colors are without a doubt the best graphics to ever grace a handheld system. Framerates are stable, and I rarely noticed hitching, which is pausing on the side of the screen. Screaming around corners in “Ridge Racer” had me thinking I was playing Gran Turismo 4 on my PS2, and hacking my way through dungeons in “Untold Legends” brought back memories of the “Baldur’s Gate” series. The capabilities of the PSP are at least on par with current console systems.

New electronic devices always have a few caveats, and the PSP is no exception. Most glaring is the omission of any sort of Internet-related software for use with the wireless networking. There is no Web browser, e-mail client or chat software. Currently, the only uses for the wireless networking are multiplayer gaming and “Network Update,” a feature that updates the system software online. To not fully utilize the capabilities of the networking seems folly, and one can only assume that Sony will roll out Internet-enabled software in the future.

Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick Duo media is also notoriously expensive, with a 1GB stick currently selling for around $175. The 32MB stick that comes with the PSP is good only for save game files and a few photos, so purchasing a higher-capacity card is essential for viewing movies or listening to music. It appears as though third parties are releasing Memory Stick media, and as with all media formats prices will eventually drop.

A few minor issues cropped up as I used the PSP over the weekend. First, the system is quite loud when UMD media spins up and data is accessed from the disc. Load times aren’t bad at all, and are less than most PS2 load times, but the sound of a disc spinning thousands of RPM between my fingers is disconcerting. This is more of a problem with the design of UMD media, however, so the possibility for modification exists. The text-entry system is also a throwback to cell phones. To enter text, it is necessary to cycle through a combination of letters and number to reach the desired character. This system can be tweaked somewhat, but it is far from intuitive. An on-screen keyboard would have been more appropriate.

These issues are nitpicks, though. The PSP is leaps and bounds above all other portable systems, and it renders the current offerings from Nintendo and Nokia obsolete. Sony has included the right mix of gaming and non-gaming features, thrown in a visually appealing user interface and packaged it all in a sleek design that screams “I’m cool, look at me,” in the same way Apple’s iPod does. The PSP seems destined to be the device that transcends the boundaries of gaming and appeal to the masses that won’t drop $250 on a single-use device. Whether it will let electronic gaming aficionados transcend the boundaries of geekdom remains to be seen.

It started Wednesday night when the hot Celtics rolled into New York expecting to walk over the bottom-dwelling Knicks. Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury had other plans. The Celtics shot just 38 percent from the field, and were embarrassed 107-82.

After the game, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers admitted his team had a little too much swagger and needed to be brought down a peg. The Celtics and Knicks trash talking resulted in seven technical fouls, but it was New York that was able to back up their words, shooting an impressive 51 percent and dominating every phase of the game.

The wounded Celts returned home to face the surging Chicago Bulls Friday night. The standings match up Boston and Chicago as first round play-off opponents and the Bulls gave the Celtics a message in the form of a 94-86 win.

The Celtics led late and let their guards down as the Bulls closed the game with a 14-4 run. Poor shooting was again the story for Boston, as they netted just 38 percent.

Saturday night featured a rematch of the epic double overtime game the Celtics and Detroit Pistons played at the FleetCenter three weeks ago. The Celts pulled that one out, and Detroit was looking for revenge.

The Celtic’s offense was again impressive against arguably the league’s best defense and the Celtics led by as many as seven in the final period. The Pistons would rally and lead, but Antoine Walker converted a three-point play with under a minute to go to tie it up. Fittingly, this game would head to overtime as well.

The extra frame was Rasheed Wallace verses Paul Pierce. Pierce scored all 11 of the Celtics’ overtime points, and Wallace had 7 of his 31. Wallace’s supporting cast made the difference as the Pistons won it 105-99. Richard Hamilton returned to the Detroit line-up and scored 22.

Perhaps the Celtics were a little too confident after winning 11 of their first 12 with Walker in the line-up. They don’t play much defense, so any game they have an off shooting night will be a challenge. Walker, Pierce, and Ricky Davis hadn’t shot poorly on the same night until this week, and the results were losses.

The Celtics will look to end their mini-skid against the high flying Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night. Both teams are renowned as offensive juggernauts with weak defenses, so the game should be one of the most exciting of the season. Someone should make sure the TNT people know this when deciding what to televise Wednesday night.

Maybe the Celtics aren’t as good as they looked during the stretch that won them 11 of 12 games. But they certainly aren’t as bad as they’ve looked over the last three games either.

Whether it is the lack of home cooking, a good night’s sleep, or the adjustment to a new environment, the first year of college certainly poses its own set of learning curves. For Josh Soares, however, that rookie year away from the friendly confides of Hamilton, Ontario, brought with its own set of struggles.

For Soares, now a sophomore wing for the University of Maine men’s hockey team, freshman year marked the departure of role he had held since he was a child: top dog. The talented sophomore had always been the go-to-guy. Before even committing to the Black Bears, Soares shone brightly in the OPJHL tallying a league-leading 56 goals and 68 assists for 124 points. These exorbitant numbers helped the soft-spoken Soares land the title of Western Conference’s Most Valuable Player, but more importantly, ignited a flurry of interest from several colleges.

Among the suitors were the Black Bears. UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead discussed what it was that drew the program to Soares’ abilities.

“Josh put up some insane numbers in junior hockey,” said Whitehead. “He was a very prolific scorer and assist guy up in the Toronto area throughout his career.”

The recruitment of Soares was helped along by UMaine junior Jon Jankus, who played with Soares on the Hamilton Kitty Bees before coming to Orono.

“We had the advantage of recruiting Jon Jankus previously,” said Whitehead, “and Jon spoke very highly of Josh Soares, because he known him really well and that gave us extra reason to be interested.”

Soares commented on the final decision to play for the Black Bears.

“It came down to Maine, Ferris State and Lake Superior,” said Soares. “Luckily Maine stayed around and I keep my SAT scores up.”

Freshman year, however, was not exactly what Soares had anticipated. The forward, who had grown use to pilfering goalies’ nets as if it were second nature, was suddenly fighting for the limelight. Playing in only 15 games, Soares registered three mere points in his freshman campaign. Soare’s first goal came nearly half-way through the season against the University of Vermont.

“Last year really was a difficult year for me,” said Soares. “I was coming out of juniors and I was use to playing every day and in every situation and I had to battle here just to get into the lineup. I had a lot of sleepless nights.”

Adding even more melodramatics to the proceedings was the fact that Soares had to watch Maine’s miraculous run to National Championship not on the bench but rather in the stands as a healthy scratch.

“Granted, he finished the year not in the lineup, but we had a good run down the stretch and it was tough to get in that lineup,” said Whitehead.

“I persevered through it and I just keep working,” said Soares. “I knew this summer was going to be a big change in my career if I was really going to do anything here.”

Completely aware of the changes he needed to make during the off season, Soares hit the weightroom and is now in the best shape of his career.

“What Josh did over the summer was get himself in the best shape of his life,” said Whitehead. “So his skating took a big jump, now you’re seeing him at his best.”

“I think throughout the season, I knew that if I didn’t change the way my body was I was going to have a difficult time cracking the lineup,” said Soares.

Whitehead also chatted about Soares off-season regime.

“When we saw the commitment level from Josh, I knew right away with his talent he would be pretty good this year,” said Whitehead. “I am just real excited for him, sure he will have some ups and downs like all of us do, but he has prepared himself now so his downs will be very short lived, and his ups will be a lot more consistent.”

The strenuous work away from the rink has paid off for Soares, who has emerged this season as one of the Black Bears pivotal players.

“We have given him an opportunity to show what he can do,” said Whitehead. “He deserves it, he trained and he is in the shape he needs to be in.”

Whitehead believes Soares improvement is clearly displayed on the ice.

“No question he is one of the most improved players on the team, if not in the league,” said Whitehead.

And for Soares, the progression is something that couldn’t have come soon enough.

“I am really happy with my decision right now,” said Soares. “I couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else.”

The Black Bears began the day on a rocky note, as the Harvard Crimson jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Sophomore right-hander Steve Richard settled down and went six innings, while allowing just two runs on four hits for the win. Richard is now 3-0 this season.

The Black Bear offense struggled early, but UMaine finally got on the board in the fifth inning, as senior catcher Aaron Izaryk drove in sophomore Joel Barrett.

The Black Bears exploded for five runs in the sixth inning to take control. Freshman Curt Smith led off with a single and scored on sophomore Ross Cantara’s double. Junior Joe Hough hit a triple to drive in senior Mike Ferriggi, who had singled. Izaryk followed up with an RBI single, and was driven in by junior Ryan Quintal’s double to give UMaine a 6-2 lead.

UMaine added a run in the eighth and Harvard scored twice in the bottom of the inning to cut their deficit to 7-4. The Black Bears added an insurance run in the ninth to account for the final score of 8-4.

The Black Bears took to the field two hours later to take on NYIT and started right where they left off, grabbing a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Hough singled, stole second and was driven on Quintal’s single. Smith and Cantara had the other RBI’s in the inning.

UMaine continued the onslaught, scoring six runs in the third to take a 9-0 lead. Hough had a two-run single for his 4th RBI’s of the day, as Gambale, Izaryk, Cantara, and Smith drove in UMaine’s other runs in the inning.

Junior starting pitcher Greg Norton turned in a solid effort, throwing 5 innings and allowing just 3 runs in the fifth. Norton’s record improves to 3-1 on the season. Sophomore Josh Zyskowski shut out NYIT in the final four innings, allowing 3 hits and picking up a save for his efforts.

In other baseball news, Richard was named America East Pitcher of the Week last week. Richard earned the honor by pitching a complete game shutout against Monmouth University in a 2-0 UMaine win. Richard, who had career-high nine strike-outs, is the second Black Bear named to the America East honor roll this season, as Smith was Rookie of the Week on March 14.

The team will take on the Northeastern Huskies and Vermont Catamounts in Boston next weekend.

They kept telling themselves it was coming. They waited patiently and anxiously for the moment when good fortunate was suppose to roll in their favor. But fate can be cruel, and on Saturday afternoon at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, MN, in their opening round NCAA West regional game, the University of Maine men’s ice hockey squad learned it the hard way.

After nearly 62 minutes of scoreless hockey, the University of Minnesota ended the Black Bears season with a gut wrenching 1-0 overtime defeat.

UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead discussed the heartbreaking nature of the loss.

“It was a great college hockey game, obviously though a very disappointing result for us,” said Whitehead. “Personally I am really proud of these guys; We really became a team this year. This is a tough one because we really wanted things to carry on; because it took us a long time to get things going in the wrong direction. We didn’t want this to end.”

Despite the best efforts of All-American goaltender Jimmy Howard, who recorded 37 saves, the Gophers were finally able to pilfer the net in the overtime thanks to a sensational play by freshman Evan Kaufmann. Just a 1:46 into the overtime period, Kaufmann slid under the UMaine defense and slammed a one-timer past Howard’s right pad for the game-winner. Kaufmann, who had just won the faceoff, was fed the puck from Garrett Smaagaar, who was waiting behind Howard’s net to send a puck to a streaking Gopher. Andy Sertich also earned an assist on the play.

The goal was scored on the first shot of the extra frame.

Kauffman commented on the harrowing goal that sent Minnesota to the West Regional final.

“I really just fired it,” said Kaufmann. “We had been shooting glove all game and I had been talking to Dustin Justin and he said if we were going to score on this guy it was going to go somewhere other than his glove. So he said aim marker side and I was just ripping it.”

A deflated Howard had high-praise for the goal:

“He just put an excellent shot on me,” said Howard. “He put it a little bit off the ice over my right pad and those are tough plays for a goal tender. It was on his stick and off his stick in a matter of seconds.”

The goal coming off an excellent centering pass from Garrett Smaagaar was laser that left Howard with little time to react.

Up until the game-winning play, the story of the game had been Howard. Solidifying his legacy at UMaine, Howard allowed the Black Bears to stay in the decision after after the team allowed 10 power plays.

“What he did out there was phenomenal, I haven’t seen too many performances like that,” said senior captain John Ronan. “It could have been over in the first period.”

Late in the third period, the Gophers looked like they were finally going to caress the mesh but Howard once again had other ideas. With 2:44 remaining in regulation Danny Irmen and Derek Peltier snuck in for a two-on-one on Howard. With defensemen Mike Lundin matching up with Irmen, the talented winger sent a smooth ascending pass to Peltier who rocketed a shot to Howard’s glove side. Quickly shifting to the left side, Howard snagged the puck leaving nearly 9,500 rabid Gophers in awe. The save was just one of many dazzling plays for Howard.

Howard commented on the near-goal:

“I was just fortunate I was reading his eyes and saw him look over there at the last second and he made the little motion and passed it across,” said Howard, “and I reacted to it and I was able to get across.”

Moments earlier, Mike Vannelli had racked a rocket off the crossbar with the delayed penalty on.

“He is a great goal tender and it seemed like whenever we had great opportunities he was there to shut it down,” said Kaufmann. “We just kept plugging away and eventually we had to get one by him.”

The Black Bears’ defense also stood on its toes against Minnesota, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Howard.

“The guys do such a tremendous job in front of me,” said Howard. “They make me look really, really good a lot of times taking away second chance opportunities and blocking shots. I owe a lot to them for making my life easier out there.”

Howard, coming off another memorable performance against Boston College in double overtime last weekend, was fresh on the mind of Whitehead during the post-game press conference.

“He is definitely our catalyst,” said Whitehead. “The fact that he was describing reading the guys’ eyes on a 2-on-1 – that is pretty good. He is an elite athlete, his concentration is fascinating.”

On the opposing end of the ice, sophomore Kellen Briggs garnered 25 saves for the shutout victory. Overshadowed by Howard’s heroics, Briggs commented on his faith in his team to get the win.

“I didn’t have to make a whole lot of extraordinary saves,” said Briggs. “I just had to be solid. I knew our guys were going to get one.”

Briggs was coming off an injury that had caused him to struggle in a loss to North Dakota before the regional semifinal.

The classic contest did have one low light: the power play. Both squads went a dismal 0-for-13 in power-play situations. UMaine was 0-for-4, while the Gophers failed to register a tally on nine power-play chances.

“I thought the only element of the game that wasn’t really good was the power plays,” said Minnesota head coach Don Lucia, “but some of that was the play of the goal tenders and the penalty killers.”

“It is one of our strengths, we are always proud of how we play in that situation,” said forward Michel Leveille.

The Black Bears, who spent 20 minutes on the penalty kill, felt the constant strain did place some added pressure on them.

“When you have to kill off nine power plays it definitely eats away at you,” Whitehead said.

“Most of all it just disrupts your flow,” Ronan said.

Lucia was not worried about the low production on the power play bothering his team.

“I kept telling the guys, don’t be frustrated, they are great on the penalty kill,” said Lucia.

The success on the penalty kill allowed the Black Bears to stay in the game despite being out shot 38-25 and 17-9 in the second period.

Although out shot, the Black Bears had several pivotal chances to snatch an advantage. At 10:39 of the second period Jon Junks rifled a shot from above the left faceoff circle into the crossbar only to spring out of the zone. Then with 6:53 remaining in the period sophomore Josh Soars flipped the puck way high over a wide-open net. Soars, who received the puck on a beautiful Ronan pass, had little time to react to the pass causing the high flying shot.

Only seconds after the near goal, Howard regained the limelight. On the opposing end of the ice, Howard dove across the crease to stop a shot by Kaufmann, who had fired a loose puck to Howard’s right.

“There were some swings in momentum and we had our moments,” said Whitehead. “I think our guys expected that there were going to be some times when it was going to be a little crazy.”

“As far as odd man rushes, I thought both teams had some pretty good looks that way but not a lot,” said Whitehead. “At the start of the third period I really liked the flow. We were playing to win, not tentative.”

For UMaine, the loss marked their second straight 1-0 defeat in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, the Black Bears fell 1-0 to Denver in the National Championship game.

“This is going to motivate us to go out there this off season and focus on getting things done so this doesn’t happen next year,” said forward Derek Damon. “There is nothing really that can describe this feeling.”

The loss to Minnesota in the land of the 10,000 lakes was reminiscent of 2002, when the Blacks were dealt a crushing 4-3 overtime defeat in the National Championship game. That game, played only 15 minutes away at the Excel Energy Center, drew comparisons from several senior Black Bears.

“This is comparable because I am a senior now,” said Ronan. “You always want to win your last game and unfortunately I didn’t get that chance this year. It’s similar.”

“It’s a different year and a different stage in all of our careers and this time it’s the last one, I am really sad to see it go,” said senior Matthew Deschamps.

“In the key games it seems like these two clubs are destined for a one goal game,” said Deschamps.

The Black Bears end the season at 20-13-7, while Minnesota improved to 27-14-1 and set up a date with Cornell in the regional final for a chance to play in the Frozen Four on Sunday.

The sentiment in the loss was best seen in senior captains Ronan and Deschamps, who 45 minutes after the game still remained in their jerseys unwilling to admit that it was all over.

“We just thought we were going to get the breaks eventually,” said Damon.