Fifth-seeded Maine battles Minnesota Friday night

ORONO – University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh said it didn’t really matter to him where his Black Bears were sent for the Bears’ 11th NCAA Tournament berth in his 17 years.

He is just grateful his 19-11-7 team went 9-2-1 down the stretch to earn the fifth seed in the Eastern Regional and a Friday night date with fourth seed Minnesota (27-12-2) at the Worcester (Mass.) Centrum.

Game time is 8:30.

“This is the most satisfying one of my career,” said Walsh, whose feelings are based on his team’s ability to overcome adversity.

“We lost [Colin] Shields [because he was ruled a transfer student] the day before the season opened and he was going to be our breakthrough rookie. Then Niko [Dimitrakos], Peter [Metcalf] and Chris Heisten all got hurt,” said Walsh who, continues to battle kidney cancer.

Boston College, 30-8-2, the Hockey East regular season and tournament champs, are the top seed and will play the winner at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

North Dakota, 27-7-9, is the second seed in the east and will await the winner of the 5:00 game between third seed Colorado College, 26-12-1, and sixth seed St. Lawrence, 20-12-4.

In the West Regional, Saturday’s first-round match-ups will have No. 4 Wisconsin, 21-14-4, taking on No. 5 Providence, 22-12-5, at 2 p.m. and No. 3 Michigan, 25-12-5, meeting MAAC champ Mercyhurst, 22-11-2, at 5:30. Sunday’s games will have No. 1 Michigan State, 32-4-4, meeting the Wisconsin-Providence winner at 2 and the Michigan-Mercyhurst victor taking on No. 2 St. Cloud State at 5:30.

The Frozen Four will be held in Albany, N.Y., on April 5-7.

Maine sophomore center Tommy Reimann, a native of Blaine, Minn., was hoping to play either Minnesota or St. Cloud State.

“It should be exciting. It’s always nice to play a team you know. I have friends on their team,” said Reimann, who plays summer hockey with or against “six or seven” Gophers.

“They are a well-coached, talented team. They can explode at any time,” said Reimann. “They have a lot of firepower up front as well as on defense. Jordan Leopold and Paul Martin are offensive-minded defensemen. It’s a good all-around team.”

Leopold, who has 12 goals and 35 assists in 41 games and is the nation’s top-scoring defenseman, is a Hobey Baker Award finalist.

Leopold is one of six Gophers who were chosen to the All-WCHA first, second, third or all-rookie teams. He was a first-teamer.

Maine did not have a player selected to any of the All-Hockey East teams.

“It’s nice that we get to stay in the east so all of our fans and the band can go,” said senior left wing Dan Kerluke.

The teams have met in the NCAA Tournament five times with Maine winning four of them including a meaningless Frozen Four consolation game in 1988.

Walsh said second-year Gopher coach Don Lucia has done a “great job” with the program.

Walsh and his players know they will have to play better than they did in their 4-3 loss to Providence in their Hockey East semifinal Friday night if they expect to beat Minnesota.

“We didn’t do what we normally do. We didn’t play well in the defensive zone. Three of their goals came off our giveaways,” said Walsh. “And we didn’t stop and start.”

“We have to play with the do-or-die attitude Providence had,” said senior defenseman and co-captain A.J. Begg. “We didn’t have our A game. But we’ve been given another chance.”

Kerluke said, “It was good that we lost that game. It was a good slap in the face. We can’t just show up and expect to win. We aren’t talented enough.”