Veterans return to Bears’ ice

They were the surprise team of 1994-95.

Picked to finish fourth in Hockey East, the Black Bears went on to win the league title and reach the NCAA final where archrival Boston University beat them 6-2.

When they take to the ice for their first practice on Sunday night-Monday morning at 12:01, the Bears will have players who produced 169 of their 201 goals and 229 of their 312 assists during their 32-6-6 season lagoals and 229 of their 312 assists during their 32-6-6 season last winter.

One of the missing players, left wing Jamie Thompson (11 goals, 15 assists), can return for the second semester provided he fulfills academic requirements.

Thompson is the only veteran forward who won’t be back. Maine will have to replace three defensemen in All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist Chris Imes, Dave MacIsaac and Jacque Rodrigue but there are seven returning defensemen.

And both goalies, All-American Blair Allison and Blair Marsh, return.

The Bears will have the cloud of the ongoing NCAA investigation hanging over them but the coaching staff and players aren’t going to dwell on it.

“We’re just going to try to ignore it. That’s all we can do. It’s beyond our control,” said junior center Dan Shermerhorn.

“We didn’t let it affect us last year,” said Maine 12th-ye “We didn’t let it affect us last year,” said Maine 12th-year head coach Shawn Walsh.

Walsh acknowledged that his team “certainly has depth at every position” but his primary concern is his defense corps.

“Our defense will be inexperienced. A lot of guys who had secondary roles last year will have to step up [into primary roles],” said Walsh was referring to Brian White, Jeff Libby, Jason Mansoff, Leo Wlasow and Jason Dekker.

Wlasow was a medical redshirt due to knee surgery.

Last year’s leading scorer, All-American Jeff Tory (13 goals, 42 assists) will be the mainstay on defense. Walsh said he expects freshmen defensemen Brett Clark and David Cullen to be impact players.

“They were two of the top recruited defensemen in Canada,” said senior center Brad Purdie.

Tory, a junior, will quarterback the power play from the left point but Walsh is concerned about who will replace Imes at the other point. He listed Clark, Cullen, Libby and Purdie among the possibilities.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys with heavy shots who haven’t had the opportunity on the power play yet,” said Tory.

Centers Purdie and Lovell, who 48 points each a year ago, and 43-point man Shermerhorn head up the list of returning forwards along with sophomore wingers Shawn Wansborough (35 points) and Scott Parmentier (33 points).

Freshman Steve Kariya, younger brother of former Bear Hobey Baker Award winner Paul Kariya, fellow freshman Jason Vitorino and transfer Matt Oliver are expected to help the Bears up front according to Walsh.

“We’ll have 15 forwards who could play on any night,” said Purdie.

Maine has been picked as high as third in the country in preseason polls but they are keeping things in perspective.

“Anybody can beat anybody else on a given night in Hockey East. Just because we might picked higher than other teams, we can’t expect to just show up and win,” said Purdie.

“If we can jell like we did last year, we could be scary,” said Shermerhorn.

“There are great expectations but we don’t want to put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We’ll take things game-by-game,” said Purdie.