Allison dispels doubts UM goalie looks like his old self

ORONO – Less than three weeks ago, Blair Allison reached the personal low point of his season as the University of Maine’s starting goaltender.

On Feb. 25, with the Black Bears well in the hunt for the top seed in the Hockey East postseason tournament, Allison was roughed up for five goals on nine shots by Northeastern University and was lifted after 31 minutes in goal.

The performance cast doubt on his standing as the team’s No. 1 goalie in the minds of fans, teammates, and his coaches.

“After that Northeastern game, I was completely lost on what was going on with him,” said UMaine interim coach Greg Cronin. “After the game, he told the team that that was his loss and he’d never let it happen again.”

Despite the game, the senior goalie didn’t include himself among the skeptics.

“No, I never doubted myself. You can’t let yourself get to that point. If you do, that’s when you’re in a lot of trouble,” Allison said.

Thursday night at Alfond Arena, that goalie the Huskies kicked around was nowhere to be found.

Allison had arguably his best game of the season – stopping 30 New Hampshire shots and being named the first star of the game as the Bears downed the Wildcats 4-2 in the opener of their Hockey East quarterfinal series.

Allison will start tonight’s game against UNH, also.

“I told the team we won the game because of the first 15 minutes. He stopped everything with the exception of that strange goal,” said Cronin. “I came down here about 4:30 [p.m.] and I saw him in the locker room, and I knew he was ready to go.”

Allison’s performance was even more remarkable given the fact he gave up a goal with his team on a power play midway through the opening period.

“Obviously that was a huge mistake on my part, but it was early in the game and I knew we had plenty of time,” said Allison. “So I just let it go and didn’t worry about it.”

Allison rebounded well, stoning several slapshots off UNH breakaways and shutting the ‘Cats out in the third period despite two UNH power plays.

“I’ve never seen him play bad. He made some great saves on the power play,” said UNH coach Dick Umile.