River Hawks’ rink kind to Black Bears UM 4-0 at Tsongas, plays Lowell tonight

Tim Whitehead went 0-4 against the University of Maine Black Bears at Tsongas Arena as the head coach of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell’s River Hawks.

Now, as the first-year interim head coach of the Black Bears, he hopes that trend continues as the two Hockey East rivals square off in a two-game set this weekend.

“It’s going to be a little different. But it’s not that big a deal,” said Whitehead, who coached the River Hawks for five years after assisting Bruce Crowder at UML for five. “We just want to focus on the series and execute what we want to do.”

He said Maine’s success in the building – the Bears also won the Governor’s Cup tournament at Tsongas with wins over New Hampshire and Vermont in 1998-99 – was “good to hear” but he doesn’t put much stock in it.

“Providence hadn’t won at our place in a long time [1989] and they had us on the ropes earlier this season before we beat them [5-4],” Whitehead said.

“It’s a nice place to play. It’s an awesome rink,” Maine junior left wing Lucas Lawson said. “I think one of the reasons is they don’t get a lot of fans so it isn’t a hard atmosphere to play in like New Hampshire or BU.”

Junior center Michael Schutte said, “That rink is pretty similar to ours. It’s an NHL-sized rink. We’ve played our game down there and been fortunate.”

Lawson also pointed out that the River Hawks haven’t been as good in previous years. They are currently 16-5-1 and ranked 7th in the country. Maine is 11th in one poll, 12th in another.

“They’re definitely for real this year. We’ve got to be prepared,” he said.

The River Hawks attracted a school-record 6,794 two weekends ago for an 8-4 triumph over Boston College.

The River Hawks will be without French Olympians Yorick Treille, Laurent Meunier and Baptiste Amar but Whitehead said, “This will give some other guys the opportunity to show they are important to the team. It could serve as a rallying cry. We have to bring our best game.”

Schutte had been the left wing on a high-scoring line with Martin Kariya and Colin Shields but will be playing his second game at center between freshmen Paul Falco and John Ronan.

“One of my jobs is to bring the young guys along. I give them pointers on the bench. I’ve been a defenseman so being a center is like being a third defenseman in the defensive zone. So it comes to me pretty fast.

“Our job is to get the puck deep [in the offensive zone], be physical and try to keep the other team pinned in its own end,” said Schutte.

The series will also feature a duel between senior goalies Mike Morrison of Maine and Cam McCormick of UML, who had been backups.

“It’s nice to see another senior come on in his last year. It’s good to see him doing well. It’ll definitely be a good little matchup. Hopefully, we’ll both put on a good show,” said Morrison.