University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh begins preparing for the NCAA Tournament long before his team has learned whether or not it has qualified for the 12-team tourney.

While many coaches are gathering videotapes of their upcoming opponents from other schools or by a videotape swapping agreement with their upcoming opponent, Walsh has had three members of the Center Ice Club taping games for him.

The Center Ice Club is for fans who want to know the intricacies of the game. The Center Ice Club meets once a month and Walsh usually brings players to address the club and goes over videotapes of previous games while explaining various aspects of them.

Maine plays Minnesota in Friday night’s 8:30 first-round game at the NCAA Eastern Regional in Worcester, Mass.

“Jim Mingo, Denny Wallace and Dave Bunker have been videotaping games for us all year. They each have a satellite dish,” said Walsh. “I think Jim taped 30 games and 20 of them involved Minnesota. Midwest Sports Channel does just about all of their games.”

And what Walsh, his coaches and players have seen on tape is a Minnesota team Walsh compares to Hockey East regular-season and tournament champion Boston College.

“Their talent scares you. They might be faster than BC,” said Walsh. “And they are so deep. They’re much better defensively than they used to be. We don’t match up with them offensively. We’re not going to scare anybody statistically. We will have to match up defensively. We understand our strengths and weaknesses and we’ve got to play within ourselves.

“But talent doesn’t always win games. That’s the beauty of hockey,” said Walsh, who added it’s the team which best executes its game plan that usually comes out on top – and the team that receives the best goaltending performance.