Sports

In a season with a slew of goals, Dee gets lost in mix

Senior sits third in goals, assists and points for Black Bears

Amy Brooks

Senior forward Robby Dee has been one of the Black Bears on a scoring tear this season, sitting third on the team with nine goals.

By Jesse Scardina

Posted on Jan. 26, 2011, at 10:54 p.m.

In a season where so much focus has been on the offense, it might be tough to realize where all the contributions are coming from. Case in point, senior forward Robby Dee has scored the quietest 22 points possible.

Of course, Dee doesn’t see the talent around him as detrimental to his personal numbers — not like that’s a worry on his mind to begin with.

“I think it works in my favor,” Dee said of playing with his high-powered teammates. “You can all play together, and if you’re playing with good players, you have a better chance of scoring and them setting you up. I think it definitely helps.”

Thankfully for the rest of the offense, Dee has been doing most of the setting up, recording 13 assists so far, second only to junior forward Gustav Nyquist’s 22. Dee’s 22 points sit third behind Nyquist’s 28 and junior forward Spencer Abbott’s 26 points.

Dee got his hockey start in the ice rink-rich state of Minnesota, playing outside most of the time with his father and his uncles when he was three years old.

Growing up a fan of the Minnesota North Stars and scoring dynamo, center Mike Modano. Unfortunately for Dee, the North Stars moved to Dallas. Still, his allegiance followed them and their deep college hockey heritage.

“[Dallas has] a lot of college hockey too. So I followed The Stars quite a bit when I was younger, he said.”

Before long, Minnesota couldn’t keep Dee in the state, as he found his way to the University of Maine.

“A couple schools back home showed interest,” Dee said. “When I came out here I was really impressed with the games I saw. They played UMass Lowell in the playoffs and it was such a good atmosphere.”

While a Black Bear, Dee has seen his point total increase steadily over his four-year career, with his high of 25 points last year surely to be eclipsed by his play this season.

With this being his last year of eligibility, Dee believes this is the best UMaine team he has been on.

“When I first got here we struggled a lot,” Dee said. “This year we’ve had a lot of the same players so we have so much experience and so much skill, and if we all play well like we should, we have a good chance to win.”

The win he is referring to, is of course Frozen Four birth — something no one on this team has done.

“We need to improve each and every day,” Dee said. “Sticking to our game plan and if we do that we have a good chance at making the Frozen Four.”

Dee, as well as the rest of the Black Bears, are focused on this season, and it was evident when Dee was asked what he plans to do after this season.

“Hopefully play somewhere — right now I’m not too worried about it — just concentrating on this season. Edmonton [Oilers] has my rights, I don’t really know how that works but they drafted me a while back, he said.”

Clearly, Dee has his sights set on getting that Frozen Four.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011, 10:54 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.