UM hockey solves some problems

ORONO – After a Friday night scrimmage in which the White team blasted the Blue team 5-1, the Blue half of the University of Maine hockey team bounced back Saturday to overcome the White 5-3 in front of a crowd of 1,772 who couldn’t care either way. But as far as Coach Shawn Walsh was concerned, the performance in the scrimmage was a relief.

The comeback made by half his Black Bears team helped to ready the team as a whole for this weekend’s Great Western Freeze Out in Los Angeles. With only nine practices into the season entering Saturday night’s scrimmage, Walsh saw a lot of mistakes resolved and so did his captains.

“They raised their level of play,” Walsh said. “The game Friday night created an environment where the Blue team was upset with their performance. The forward lines clicked pretty well. The three lines played together – and all scored tonight. Not all three did Friday night – only two did.”

Senior captain Brad Purdie, who had a goal and two assists Saturday for the Blue, still saw a lot of things the Black Bears had to work on before their first game, but he said the major flaw in Friday’s scrimmage was fixed on Saturday.

“From the beginning of [Friday’s] game to tonight [Saturday] we made lots of improvements. Friday the defense was breaking down. We came out flat. Coach corrected that,” Purdie said.

Also added was a more competitive approach. In the third period, junior defensemen Jeff Tory and sophomore wing Scott Parmentier, in particular, increased their level of play spurring a Blue scoring surge.

At 5:05 into the third, with Blue down 3-2, Parmentier scored off a Purdie assist for his second goal of the game to tie it. Tory kept the momentum going scoring 10 second later off an assist from Purdie to put Blue ahead. Then, at 7:40, Parmentier completed a hat trick scoring off a Wayne Conlan assist for the game’s final goal.

“We were really competitive tonight,” Tory said. “There is definitely some rust. The timing is off. Guys are making mistakes they normally wouldn’t be making. In the second period, we had a lot of good chances, but nothing was going in. We jumped into the third period. I scored early off a nice pass, the one that put us ahead – we gained some momentum then.”

Tory is confident after Saturday’s scrimmage that with this year’s veteran staff of six seniors and 12 juniors, the freshman will help to strengthen the ranks.

“The freshman are all fitting in right away. Their not making a lot of freshman mistakes. Of course, they have a much better supporting cast than lat year’s freshman.”

But practice makes perfect, and with so little time to practice, the Black Bears are far from perfect. Maine has had the shortest amount of time to prepare for its first game than in previous seasons, Walsh said. And, after Saturday night’s scrimmage, there remained flaws he hopes to eliminate before this weekend’s tournament.

With nine penalties sprinkled throughout the game, discipline is one area Walsh has slated for improvment.

“I didn’t like the amount of penalties. There were nine. They’re lacking in discipline. In college [this season] there will be close calls. I was glad to see the officials tonight making close calls.”