Walsh: tumors haven’t grown> UMaine hockey coach upbeat, feeling better after treatments

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University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh said a recent CAT scan conducted at Bangor’s Eastern Maine Medical Center showed that the cancerous tumors under his breast plate had not progressed.

But Walsh said the CAT scan was inconclusive concerning whether or not the immunotherapy he underwent for the disease has begun destroying the tumors. He said he expects to undergo another CAT scan in six weeks.

Walsh, diagnosed with kidney cancer in June, underwent two grueling 20-day immunotherapy treatments at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles earlier this fall.

The treatment shocks the immune system into attacking the remaining cancerous tumors. He had a cancerous kidney removed on July 7.

The fact the tumors haven’t progressed is a positive development. So far, so good, said Walsh.

He said his doctors are encouraged and that he has also been uplifted by his own health.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by my energy level and appetite. I don’t feel sick at all, said Walsh who used to have lingering nausea, diarrhea and fatigue.

I’ve gained five or six pounds back, added Walsh who lost 12 pounds due to the immunotherapy.

I feel great except for this cold and our lack of scoring, quipped the 17th-year Maine head coach whose team has scored two goals or less eight times in 12 games so far.

Walsh said if it is eventually discovered that the immunotherapy wasn’t as successful as they had hoped, there are several other treatments available including a new vaccine that was featured in a front page story in Friday’s Boston Herald.

According to the story, a German study said the vaccine completely eradicated tumors in some patients with advanced forms of kidney cancer and shrank tumors in other patients.

There are different ways to attack the tumors, said Walsh.

For right now, Walsh wants his team to find ways to attack opposing nets in order to break out of its season-long scoring slump.

The Bears may have hit rock bottom Saturday night with a 2-1 overtime loss to lowly Dartmouth College, which entered the game with a 1-5 record.

However, it was Maine’s third game in five nights and Dartmouth hadn’t played since the previous weekend. Walsh acknowledged, it’s the first time our team seemed tired on the bench.

Maine has allowed only 1.92 goals per game, the best among all Hockey East teams.

But they Bears are just 5-4-3 overall because they have scored only 2.92 goals per game.

And the Bears have yet to play nationally-ranked Boston College and New Hampshire and they still have two with Providence. Boston University, which is a surprising 2-8-1, also plays Maine three times.

Maine has scored only 20 even-strength goals in its 12 games and virtually every forward is in some kind of slump.

The only exceptions are sophomore centers Chris Heisten and Lucas Lawson and junior right wing Niko Dimitrakos.

Heisten has registered at least a point in seven of his last eight games (2 goals, 9 assists); Lawson has two goals and four assists in his last six and Dimitrakos has three goals in three games.

However, on the other side of the ledger, Maine’s veteran forwards simply aren’t getting the job done offensively:

Senior left wing Dan Kerluke and sophomore LW Tommy Reimann, two of the players expected to produce consistently, have each gone six games without a goal.

Sophomore right wing Gray Shaneberger hasn’t registered a point in his last eight games and linemate Kevin Clauson has just one assist in his last seven.

Sophomore center Marty Kariya has only one goal over his last nine games and sophomore LW Robert Liscak has scored once all season.

Senior right wing Matthias Trattnig has two goals over his last nine games.

We’re creating the chances but we just aren’t finishing, said Walsh, who will keep his lines intact in hopes that they will develop a productive chemistry.

Kerluke said the goals will come.

We need to regain some confidence, said Kerluke.

He agreed with Walsh’s assessment that they are generating enough chances to win and said there isn’t any particular reason for their lack of finishing.

The goals will have to go in eventually, said Kerluke. But we can’t afford to get frustrated. We have been playing great team defense, although we didn’t against Dartmouth.

He added that the Bears must start stringing together some wins to enhance their NCAA Tournament aspirations.

We’ve got a lot of important Hockey East games coming up and I prefer playing Hockey East games, said Kerluke, who feels there is more intensity in league games.

Maine’s next five games before Christmas are league games, beginning with a weekend series against Northeastern at Alfond Arena Friday night (7:00) and Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center on Sunday afternoon (2:00).

Freshman wingers Todd Jackson (slight concussion vs. Dartmouth) and Brendan Donovan (kidney ailment) are questionable for the weekend and junior defenseman Peter Metcalf (knee) is out.