UM’s Robitaille sidelined with injured knee

University of Maine senior center Martin Robitaille will be sidelined for at least three weeks with sprained medial collateral ligaments in his right knee.

That was the word Monday from Maine trainer Dick Young.

The injury, which occurred during the second period of Maine’s 5-0 win over Calgary in the Great Western Freeze-Out Tournament championship game Friday night, will end Robitaille’s school-record streak of 148 consecutive games.

Sophomore center-right wing Patrice Tardif (sprained medial collateral knee ligaments) and senior right wing Steve Widmeyer (separated right shoulder) are listed as questionable for this weekend’s Bank One Badger Hockey Showdown Tournament at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

Tardif was injured in Maine’s 6-2 win over New Hampshire on Dec. 7 and Widmeyer was hurt in the 4-2 win over Michigan State in the Great Western Freeze-Out on Thursday night.

Maine will already be without right wing Jean-Yves Roy, who has left to play for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup Tournament in Davos, Switzerland; defenseman Chris Imes and goalie Mike Dunham, who will play for the United States team in the World Junior Championships in Germany.

Senior tri-captain Mike Barkley and junior left winger Martin Mercier, who recently returned to action after recovering from offseason knee surgery and a sprained hand, respectively, will probably replace Roy and Robitaille up front.

Maine will remain in North Hollywood until Thursday morning and will then fly to Milwaukee.

As champions of the Great Western Freeze-Out, the Black Bears have been invited back to defend their crown next season.

“We’d like to go back but it will have to be approved by our athletic director (Mike Ploszek) and administration,” said Maine Coach Shawn Walsh. “It’s a first-class tournament.”

Walsh said tourney officials informed him that they plan to move the tournament back to the weekend to eliminate the conflict with final exams.

Maine, Calgary and Waterloo were all involved in final exams last week.

For the second time this season, Maine junior goalie Garth Snow was named Hockey East Player of the Week. He shared the honor with Providence College senior defenseman Rob Gaudreau this time.

Snow made 20 saves in the win over Michigan State and 11 more in the whitewashing of Calgary.

Snow said he was “surprised” to be named Co-Player of the Week.

“I didn’t make many saves,” said Snow. “I didn’t face many shots in either game.”

Maine Coach Shawn Walsh said his goalie is “on top of his game.”

In addition to making saves, Snow had an excellent tournament handling and shooting the puck.

“I felt good handling the puck out there. I was trying to get the puck up quickly,” said Snow.

Snow has now lowered his goals-against average to 2.19 on the season and raised his save percentage to .882. Snow is 11-1, raising his career record to 31-7.

“Hopefully, it’ll stay at seven losses for a while,” said Snow. “I’m still mad about that one loss this season (5-4 to Boston University on Nov. 15).”

Snow leads Hockey East in league GAA (2.20) and save percentage (.908) and is tied with Boston College’s Scott LaGrand and New Hampshire’s Jeff Levy for league wins with four.