Ex-Maine player relishing chance Several factors combine for success

After an absence of 31/2 years, he has returned to an NHL ice sheet.

Mario Lemieux?

Yes, but….

How about Jim Montgomery, the University of Maine’s all-time leading point-getter with 301 in 170 games?

“I figured if Mario came back, I could come back,” joked Montgomery, who is now wearing the colors of the San Jose Sharks.

Montgomery was and still is leading the AHL in scoring with 48 points on 13 goals and 35 assists in 38 games. He had signed with the Sharks over the summer and was playing for Kentucky when the Sharks called him up.

He has an assist in five games for the Sharks while centering the fourth line and playing on their top power-play unit with the likes of Owen Nolan, Brad Stuart, Gary Suter, and Vincent Damphousse. He plays 8-12 shifts a game between the fourth line and the power play.

“This is the most talented team I have ever played on,” said the 31-year-old Montgomery, who has had previous NHL tours with St. Louis, Montreal, and Philadelphia.

“I’m pretty excited to be back up,” said Montgomery, who has played with Philadelphia and Kentucky of the AHL along with Manitoba of the IHL over the last 31/2 seasons. “I’ve always had a dream to get into the Stanley Cup finals and win one. I already have a championship ring at the college [Maine, 1993] and the minor league level [Philadelphia, 1998].”

“The Sharks told me [prior to training camp] that they didn’t have a lot of depth at center, but they wanted to give a chance to some younger players to see how it went,” Montgomery said. “I had a really good training camp and [Sharks coach] Darryl Sutter told me if one of his top two offensive centers got hurt, he’d call me up. He said he was impressed with my offensive abilities.”

So down he went to Kentucky.

“Lexington, Ky., is a nice place to play and they’ve got good coaches down there in Roy Sommer and Nick Fotiu. I was having a really good year. Neither of San Jose’s top two centers got hurt, but they called me up anyway because they wanted one of their young centers, Mark Smith, to get some more playing time [in the AHL],” said Montgomery.

Montgomery feels he can stick with the Sharks, who currently have the third-most points, by making the power play work.

“They wanted another right-hand shot on the power play with Owen Nolan. They want to see what I could do,” he said. “I feel real comfortable playing down low and coming out of the corner. I’m confident in my ability to find the open man in those situations. I’ve also got to hunt down the puck. It’s nice to get the opportunity to use my strengths. We’ve been moving the puck well.”

In addition, he feels he has to win faceoffs and stay game-sharp

Boston sports scene is grim

Dale Arnold, a member of the first graduating class at Topsham’s Mount Ararat High School, has his hand on the pulse of the Boston sports scene and describes it as “pretty grim.”

Arnold handles the play-by-play chores for Boston Bruins television games on NESN and WSBK (UPN-38) and is also the co-host of the popular A Team sports talk show with Eddie Andelman on WEEI-AM in Boston.

“We’re all hoping the Red Sox will be the savior,” said Arnold, the media relations director and broadcaster for the old Maine Mariners AHL team in Portland. “As far as the rest, it’s not good right now.”

“The Celtics have gone beyond the point where people are mad,” Arnold said. “Nobody cares any more and that’s worse. [Departed coach and team president] Rick Pitino’s personnel decisions were terrible. He had absolutely no patience. I can’t imagine anybody straightening them out for another three, four, or five years.

“I don’t think the Patriots situation is quite as grim. It can be fixed if they have the right people in place to fix it. But they can’t afford to screw up the draft this year. They’ve got the sixth pick and he has to be somebody who can step in and play immediately and develop into a Pro Bowl-caliber player.”

Arnold said a lineman on either side of the ball would be the best route to go.

Arnold believes quarterback Drew Bledsoe is worth the reported $20 million signing bonus he seeks “assuming they do something to keep him upright. When he has a semblance of a running game, he can be a very good quarterback. When he had a complete cast, he had the team in the Super Bowl.”

As for the Bruins, he said, “They’re young, but now that they’re healthy, they’re playing better. The problem I see for them is they have their top three guys on one line [Billy Guerin, Jason Allison, and Sergei Samsonov]. If you stop that line, you pretty much shut them down. I think they’ll probably be in the playoffs, but I don’t know how far they’ll go.”

As for the Red Sox, Arnold said, “If the baseball fairy had perched on my shoulder, I would have wanted Mike Mussina over Manny Ramirez. A rotation of Pedro [Martinez] and Mussina would have been tough to beat. But Manny was the second-best free agent they could have signed. This certainly makes them a lot more exciting.”