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The University of Maine men’s hockey team is used to tall goalies. When 6-foot-7-inch Ben Bishop left the Black Bears to turn pro after his junior season in 2008, 6-foot-5 freshman Scott Darling took over the crease.
Northeastern University coach Greg Cronin will send out a tower of his own this weekend to oppose sophomore Darling, as 6-foot-6-inch freshman Chris Rawlings has earned the starting job for the Huskies and will be in net for a Hockey East pair at newly renovated Matthews Arena in Boston. Friday’s game will be the 100th meeting between the teams.
Rawlings was named Hockey East’s Pro Ambitions Rookie of The Week after a 42-save shutout of defending National Champions Boston University last Friday. He filled the void left by Brad Thiessen, who turned pro after starting all 41 games during his junior season, which resulted in a 25-13-4 record and a trip to the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal.
“I know they’re well coached. They’ve got good goaltending again this year,” said UMaine junior captain Tanner House. “We’re going to have to be shooting from everywhere and getting into those high-traffic areas in front of the net.”
Rawlings, who was the MVP in the British Columbia league last year, has been a positive for the 3-4-0 (1-3-0 Hockey East) Huskies, whose anemic offense is producing a league low 2.00 goals per game. They have scored just one goal in each of their last three games, including the win against BU.
Junior Wade MacLeod is Northeastern’s points leader with five, after scoring a team-high 35 last season. He was followed by seniors Ryan Ginand and Joe Vitale. Defenseman Louis Liotti, named Hockey East’s best defenseman, also graduated. Three freshmen have cracked the top 10 in scoring this season for the Huskies.
Before the season, Cronin told USCHO.com he thought that despite the losses of Liotti and blueliner Denis Chisholm, the returning defense corps may be stronger than last year’s. Sophomore Drew Muench was expected to be better than Liotti last year but redshirted with an injury. He returned healthy this fall. Cronin predicted a better season for the team overall base on returning depth and an influx of talent.
“They did lose some key guys, but I think they’ve got a heck of a team,” UMaine coach Tim Whitehead said. “They’re going to play hard and we have to bring our best game, especially on the road.”
Cronin was an assistant coach at UMaine from 1993-95 and an interim head coach in 1996. Whitehead feels Northeastern’s success under Cronin is not an accident.
“He’s just very thorough with his preparation and really does a great job in preparing his team to execute the little things,” Whitehead said.
UMaine (3-5-0, 2-2-0 HE) is coming off a pair of wins against top-10 teams in BU and the University of Vermont. Four of their five losses have come on the road. The hostile Matthews Arena atmosphere will be a factor.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to do on the road what we’ve done at home,” Whitehead said. “That’s the next step for our team.”
Northeastern swept the season series from UMaine last year, including two games at Alfond Arena.
“Last year we felt like we matched up pretty well against them, but we couldn’t get the wins,” Whitehead said. “It’s really not so much who we play, but how we play. We’re focusing on executing our systems, and most importantly on the defensive side of the puck.”
UMaine’s poor record on the road has left voters in the national polls unconvinced of the Black Bears’ potential. UMaine is not listed as receiving votes in the two polls.
“We’re not too worried about those votes right now,” House said. “We’ve had a couple good games, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot if we’re not consistent and we don’t bring it this weekend.”
House feels the Black Bears are a different team now than the one that sputtered out of the gate.
“There’s a lot of confidence right now,” House said. “We know if we’re playing together as a team for a full 60 minutes, we’re going to give ourselves a good opportunity to win.”
The two-game weekend following a pair of one-game weeks could help UMaine attain continuity.
“If you lose a game, it’s nice when you can get back at it right away,” House said.
The Black Bears are continuing to excel on the power play with 28 percent efficiency, ranked third in Hockey East. They have recorded a power-play goal in all eight games with 14 of their 24 goals coming with the man advantage. Freshman Adam Shemansky leads the team with four power-play goals.
House has noticed a steady improvement in UMaine’s penalty killing ability as well. The Black Bears are killing opposing power plays at a rate of 76.7 percent.
Darling turned in a second consecutive solid night between the pipes against BU and improved to 3-1 with a team-best 3.03 goals-against average and a .896 save percentage. UMaine’s defensive coverage was effective against the Terriers but contributed to their poor start to the season. Whitehead was pleased with the improvement.
“We were a lot more composed in our own end,” Whitehead said. “It’s not something that you fix in one week. It’s something you have to work on throughout the season. The great news is, we’re getting a lot better defending with our sticks and our positioning is a lot better on defense too.”
UMaine’s defense, allowing 3.88 goals per-game, is ranked ninth in the 10-team conference. The Black Bears are scoring an average of three goals per game while Northeastern is allowing three per game. Both rank sixth in their respective categories.
Sophomore right wing Gustav Nyquist’s 13 points remain tied for the league lead with UMass’ James Marcou. Shemansky follows Nyquist for the UMaine lead and is tied for 19th in Hockey East with seven points. Both players have five goals.
The Black Bears will return to Alfond Arena on Nov. 20-21 for a two-game set against Boston College.
