Maine gains third seed in regional Bears to face Harvard in first round; BU gets bye

The University of Maine Black Bears have given themselves a little extra work to do.

Or, you could say the University of New Hampshire Wildcats put an obstacle in Maine’s NCAA championship aspirations by virtue of their 3-1 win over the Black Bears in Saturday’s Hockey East Tournament championship game.

That probably prevented Maine from receiving the second seed in the NCAA Tournament’s Eastern Regional and a first-round bye.

The 23-10-7 Bears learned Sunday night that they will be the third seed in the Eastern Regional at the Worcester Centrum (Mass.) and will face Harvard University’s Crimson, the sixth seed, in a first- round game on Saturday at noon.

Harvard, 15-14-4, is the ECAC tourney champ by virtue of its upset win over top seed Cornell, 4-3, in double overtime. It will be Harvard’s first NCAA tourney appearance since 1994.

The winner of the Maine-Harvard game will take on No. 2 seed Boston University, 25-9-3, in Sunday’s quarterfinal game at noon. BU is the second seed and received a bye as did top seed New Hampshire, 29-6-3.

The other Saturday game features No. 4 Cornell, 24-7-2, against No. 5 Quinnipiac, 20-12-5 and the MAAC titlist. That game will begin at 3:30 p.m. and the winner will take on New Hampshire at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Maine knocked BU out of the Hockey East tourney Friday night 4-3 and won the season series 2-1-1 but BU was rated fourth in the Pairwise rankings that are used to decide the at-large teams while Maine was seventh.

The Pairwise takes into consideration five criteria: record against common opponents, record in last 16 games, head to head, record against other teams at or above .500 and the Ratings Percentage Index.

BU had a better RPI and better records against teams under consideration and common opponents.

Denver gained the top seed for the West Regional in Ann Arbor, Mich. Rounding out the West seeds are: 2. Minnesota; 3. Michigan State; 4. Michigan; 5. St. Cloud State and 6. Colorado College.

The top two teams from each regional advance to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., on April 4-6.

The resilient Bears overcame the death of 18-year head coach Shawn Walsh due to complications from kidney cancer on Sept. 24 and a 3-4-2 start to notch their fourth consecutive NCAA berth.

Interim head coach Tim Whitehead has guided the Bears to a 23-10-7 season that has included a 13-3-4 record over the 2002 portion of their schedule.

The loss to UNH ended a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2).

The Black Bears are 20-13 in the NCAA Tournament with national championships in 1993 and 1999.

They have made seven trips to the Frozen Four.

They received a first-round bye in 1993 but didn’t earn one in 1999 and had to beat Ohio State (4-2) and Clarkson (7-2) to sew up its berth in the Frozen Four in Anaheim.

They earned a bye two years ago and beat Michigan 5-2 for a berth in the Frozen Four and, last year, they beat Minnesota 5-4 in overtime before losing to eventual national champ Boston College 3-1 in the quarterfinals.ulta l three re

Whitehead and the Maine players were a little surprised BU was ahead of them in the Pairwise Rankings but they took it in stride.

“I’d rather not have the bye and the day off,” said senior captain and defenseman Peter Metcalf. “If you win your first game, you’ve got momentum to take into the second one.”

Junior left winger Lucas Lawson said, “We’re used to playing back-to-back games. If we’re fortunate enough to get by Harvard, it [fatigue] won’t be a factor against BU.”

Whitehead said the important thing is that his team will remain in the East.

“We’ve worked extremely hard to earn the opportunity to stay in the east,” said Whitehead who added that they will have their hands full with Harvard.

“They’re playing well right now, They ran the table in the ECAC Tournament,” said Whitehead who insisted that his team won’t look past Harvard toward arch-rival BU.

“[The Harvard game] is too big a game. It will be a good challenge,” said Whitehead.

“And Harvard will carry a lot of momentum into Worcester after their win over Cornell,” warned Lawson.