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ORONO – Tommy Reimann has always been a prolific point producer.
In 1998, he had 113 points in 54 games to win the national junior scoring title while playing for the Billings Bulls in the Frontier Hockey League.
But the University of Maine sophomore center was mired in a goal-scoring slump that defied description this season.
Twenty-nine games.
He finally broke out of it with two first-period goals in a 4-3 loss to Providence College in their Hockey East semifinal at the FleetCenter last Friday night.
“Before college, I don’t think I’d gone more than three games without a goal,” said Reimann Tuesday.
Reimann tried everything to snap out of it.
“I picked up rocks and rubbed them together; I slept on the floor before a game,” said Reimann.
Last week, prior to the Providence game, he called some of his former Billings teammates and discussed his slump with them.
He said they were surprised at his goal-scoring famine “but they told me just to keep playing my game” and the goals will come.
He also wrote the letters LEDTTF on his stick.
What do they stand for?
“I’ll tell you after we win the national championship,” grinned Reimann whose first challenge in the NCAA Eastern Regional tournament will be Minnesota on Friday night in Worcester, Mass.
Ironically, his last goal before Friday night came against Providence in a 5-3 loss Nov. 3.
He admits that the drought grated on him.
“How can you not think about it? But I tried to help the team in other ways like by playing good defense,” said Reimann, who kills penalties and sees power-play duty in addition to skating a regular shift between Dan Kerluke and Lucas Lawson.
“I learned a lot about myself and how to play the game,” said Reimann, who was switched from wing to center 12 games ago.
“I like it. It’s different. There’s a lot more responsibility in the defensive zone,” said Reimann.
The two goals that ended his slump were gems.
On the first one, he held the puck and faked a shot to create a better shooting angle. The second one was a blistering one-timer from the right circle into the short side.
“That has really helped my confidence,” said Reimann.
The Blaine, Minn., native has five goals and 11 assists in 36 games after posting 2 & 11 in 21 games during a concussion-marred rookie season last year.
Walsh agrees with format change
If the NCAA Hockey Committee hadn’t changed the format, the University of Maine could have been the second seed in the Eastern Regional this season and received a first-round bye.
It used to be that the top two seeds in the east and west earned the byes but the committee changed it so that the top four teams, regardless of region, received the byes.
Based on the Pairwise Rankings, Maine is eighth overall but second in the east behind Boston College.
The Pairwise Rankings compares teams at or above .500 by five criteria: record against common opponents, record in last 16 games, head-to-head competition, record against other teams at or above .500 and ratings percentage index.
But Maine coach Shawn Walsh has no gripes with the change.
“This is much fairer,” said Walsh.
The Bears did get to stay in the east and the Worcester Centrum has been very kind to the Bears over the years.
Maine is 4-0 in NCAA Eastern Regional tournament games in Worcester with three of those wins coming during their march to national championships in 1993 and 1999.
The Bears beat Minnesota 6-2 in 1993 and, in 1999, they ousted Ohio State (4-2) and Clarkson (7-2) to reach the Frozen Four.
The Bears’ other Worcester triumph came in 1995, 4-2 over Denver. They went on to reach the NCAA final but lost to Boston University 6-2.
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