Sports

Recovery, growth expected for hockey

Men prepare for weekend with Mercyhurst

By Danielle Young

Posted on Oct. 18, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.

Coming off a pair of road losses to the University of Denver this past weekend, the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team looks to bounce back this weekend during their home series against Mercyhurst College. Maine will look to improve upon their 0-2 record and seek their first win of the season.

Despite the Denver losses, the team came away from this weekend optimistic. Senior defensemen Rob Bellamy and junior goaltender Ben Bishop both concluded that the weekend was a good learning experience.

“We have a lot of new players on our team, and it was good for them to start their college career against a team like Denver,” Bellamy said. With 10 rookies on the team, the games stayed close despite all of the young talent on the ice.

“Both games we could have won, which is good considering all the inexperience we had in the line up,” Bishop said. Bishop comes off a pair of games in which he stopped 73 of 78 shots he faced, including a career-high 46 saves on Friday night. He was named the Hockey East Pure Hockey Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.

Looking ahead to Mercyhurst, Black Bear fans will see some familiar faces this weekend at Alfond Arena, including former Maine goaltender Matt Lundin. Lundin played two years for Maine until leaving for the United States Hockey League’s Siuox Fall Stampede during the 2006-2007 season. While at Maine, Lundin collected eight wins in 12 career decisions and ended each of these two seasons with a goals against average of 2.00 or less. Last year, with the Stampede, Lundin won 24 games and led the squad to the championship cup.

Both Maine and Mercyhurst will enter the weekend at 0-2. It looks like it could be a battle of goaltenders, but Bishop remains confident.

“This weekend we just want to get off to a good start Friday and roll from there,” he said. Maine players, including Rob Bellamy, can’t wait to begin their season at home, “we are all very excited to start the season at Alfond Arena, the fans are always behind us and they always give us a boost to succeed.”

Your Maine Black Bears take on Mercyhurst Friday and Saturday night at the Alfond Arena, with both games set for 7 p.m.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.