WORCESTER, Mass. – First-year right winger Colin Shields’ 28 goals are the most scored by a University of Maine player in a single season since Brad Purdie notched 29 during the 1994-95 season. He is tied for fifth in the country in goals and his 13 power-play goals have him tied for second in the nation.

Several of Shields’ goals this season have come on one-timers. Like many top goal scorers, he has the ability to fire the puck accurately and with exceptional pace without stopping it first. One-timers are tougher for goalies to stop. They are released so quickly, goalies don’t have time to get themselves set.

What’s the key to a one-timer?

“You have to time it right and you want to make sure the puck is nice and close to your body. You want your shoulder right over the puck and you want to get all of your weight behind it. You shift your weight from the back foot to the front foot,” said Shields, who has keyed a resurgent Maine power play since being put at the point six games ago.

Maine is 11-for-31 with the man advantage (35.5 percent) and Shields has three power-play goals and three assists.

He also said it is important to make contact with the puck on the down swing rather than the upswing.

“You don’t want to hit too much ice behind the puck, but it’s all right to do so on your follow-through [after the puck has been struck],” said Shields.

Expansion to 16 teams likely in 2003

Bids are already coming in to host next year’s NCAA Hockey Tournament regionals and, according to NCAA Ice Hockey Committee chairman Jack McDonald, the athletic director at Quinnipiac University (Conn.), it appears a very good bet that the NCAA will approve the expansion to 16 teams for next season.

The NCAA Division I softball tournament will be expanded from 48 to 64 teams and the men’s lacrosse tourney, like hockey, will go from 12 to 16 teams.

But it could be presumptuous to assume that there will be four, four-team regionals.

“It’s most likely that it will be four, four-team regionals, but we also need to take a look at other options,” said McDonald. “We want to walk before we run. We don’t want to end up with four half-filled buildings.”

He said they will begin looking at regional site bids in June.

“We’ll get buildings. It’s just a matter of filling them. We’re more worried about the West,” said McDonald.

There are no worries for McDonald and his committee this season.

“All six dates are sold out. That has never happened before,” said McDonald, referring to the two regional dates in Worcester and Ann Arbor, Mich., and the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., April 4-6.

McDonald said College Hockey America is likely to get the sixth automatic qualifier next season. The tourney champs in Hockey East, ECAC, MAAC, WCHA, and CCHA received automatic berths this year.

Walsh still in players’ minds

University of Maine senior right winger Niko Dimitrakos said former Maine coach Shawn Walsh, who died of complications from kidney cancer on Sept. 24, is still very much on the minds of the players.

“This was his time of year and he passed that on to us,” said Dimitrakos. “He always told us don’t worry if you lose in the Hockey East semifinals or finals, our goal is to make the NCAA Tournament and to win the national title. The last time we won the national championship [1999], we didn’t win the Hockey East regular-season title or the Hockey East tournament.”

MacDonald aids Quinnipiac player

Josh MacDonald of Millinocket, the University of Maine equipment manager and skate sharpener, gave a helping hand to Quinnipiac sophomore defenseman Wade Winkler Friday.

Winkler needed his blade riveted to his boot and MacDonald was more than happy to oblige after Braves coach Rand Pecknold asked for his help.

“It was no big deal. They didn’t have an equipment guy with them,” said MacDonald, a fifth-year student at Maine.

MacDonald joked that if Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni had made the same request, his answer might have been different.

Maine and Harvard meet in Saturday’s first-round game at noon in the NCAA Tournament’s Eastern Regional.