UM hockey team heads for finals Bears feel Walsh’s spirit in win vs. BU

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WORCESTER, Mass. – Peter Metcalf knows you couldn’t hear him Sunday afternoon, as he grabbed that tangible symbol of his former coach’s spirit and hoisted it during a solemn victory lap around the Centrum Centre.

There’s no way you could hear what he was saying to Shawn Walsh as he proudly held that Maine hockey jersey aloft. You couldn’t know exactly what the UMaine hockey captain was thinking as the cheers rained down from the rafters and fans wearing both Black Bear blue and Boston University red said goodbye … again … to the coach who lost his battle with cancer back on the first day of practice last fall.

Metcalf knows you don’t know.

But he’d be glad to fill you in on exactly what happened as he tried to skate off the ice Sunday after UMaine had topped BU 4-3 in the NCAA quarterfinals and earned its eighth trip to the NCAA Frozen Four.

Metcalf was a stride from the tunnel when he stopped, circled back, and headed to the bench.

“I think [I felt] a rush through my body,” Metcalf said, explaining that the Bears hadn’t planned any post-game tribute to their former coach. But when Metcalf felt that twinge … then turned back toward the bench … he saw something that made perfect sense.

“Coach [Tim Whitehead] held the jersey up, and it just clicked,” Metcalf said. “All of a sudden there was a rush through my body.”

All season long, one Black Bear has been chosen before each game to serve as a one-man honor guard of sorts, and that player – one who’d played well the previous night – proudly carried onto the ice a jersey adorned with Walsh’s name and the number “01,” and hung it on the UMaine goal netting during pregame warm-ups.

But on Sunday, Metcalf took that ritual a step further … and became part of the most poignant scene of the weekend.

While the cheers rained down, and as an arena stood as one in a show of respect, Metcalf talked to his former coach. Well, perhaps that’s not exactly accurate.

“I was yelling,” Metcalf clarified. “No one could hear me, obviously. But I was yelling: ‘We’re doing this for him. This is for you, baby.'”

Matt Yeats, the goalie who spent three years as Walsh’s favorite big-game netminder, and the last several months trying to prove himself all over again to interim coach Whitehead, said his teammate’s move made perfect sense to him.

“I think Peter wanted to let people know that coach Walsh is still with us. We’re still pulling for him, we’re still thinking of him, and we really want to win this for him,” Yeats said.

But Metcalf’s message was more personal than that. He wasn’t just showing fans that the Bears are thinking of their coach, you see. He’s showing Walsh, too.

Metcalf’s throat catches at the memory, just a half-hour old and already filed away forever.

“He’s proud of us right now,” Metcalf said, softly.

So is his new coach, Whitehead.

Whitehead is the guy who stepped into an impossible situation at the personal invitation of Walsh: Come be my top assistant. Take care of things if my health keeps me from coaching.

The worst-case scenario became reality back on Sept. 24 when Whitehead’s friend died. The top assistant became the head coach … with an asterisk attached.

“Interim,” the prefix claims. “We’ll see” is what it actually means.

And while half the questions Whitehead answers at each press conference seem to deal with the man he’s not, rather than the man he is, he takes them all in stride. Just as he did Sunday, as the Bears prepared for a trip to St. Paul, Minn., as one of the top four teams in college hockey.

Think he wanted to step right in and make people forget all about Shawn Walsh? You don’t know Tim Whitehead.

“Every team needs an inspiration and needs something to pull them together, and for us, Shawn has been that, consistently,” Whitehead said. “Just like he was when he was here.”

On the surface, that sentiment makes sense. But it also begs a question: Whose team is this? Is it still Walsh’s team? Or is it Whitehead’s? Has the new coach been merely an able caretaker of greater talent than he enjoyed as head coach at UMass-Lowell? Or has he been the perfect low-key leader the Bears needed after the high-octane Walsh?

To find the answer, you might want to ask a player. Try Metcalf. Ask him if he thinks the asterisk should be removed, and if Whitehead should be hired on a full-time, permanent basis.

“He’s obviously got my vote and everyone on the team’s vote,” Metcalf said. “He’s a great coach, and how Lowell ever let go of him, I have no idea.”

All Metcalf knows is if Whitehead was good enough for Walsh, he’s good enough for the Bears.

“[Coach Walsh] could have picked anyone in the country to come up to Maine and coach,” Metcalf said. “It’s a great legacy. He hand-picked coach Whitehead, and that means a lot. That’s why we never doubted him.”

No doubt. But that doesn’t mean the Bears haven’t drawn as much inspiration from the memory of their old coach as they have from the tactics of their new one.

Listen to the Black Bears talk, and you’d swear Shawn Walsh was sitting … somewhere … in the Centrum during the weekend’s games.

On Saturday, the Bears advanced to the quarterfinals by topping Harvard in overtime.

Afterward, winning goalie Mike Morrison said the Bears might have gotten some help.

“We definitely feel fortunate, but we’ve been here four years,” Morrison said. “Maybe we got a bounce. Maybe luck was on our side. Or maybe good ol’ SW was on our side.”

On Sunday, Metcalf conferred with fellow senior Niko Dimitrakos before the third-period faceoff. Good ol’ SW, whose initials are on each player’s helmet and jersey, was a topic of conversation.

“I tapped Niko right on the shin pads at the opening of the third period, and said, ‘Hey, let’s do this. Let’s do this for coach [Walsh],”‘ Metcalf said.

The Bears did just that. And it doesn’t bother Whitehead at all that the man who used to sit in his office is still referred to in the present tense. In fact, Metcalf points out, it’s Whitehead who does it more than anyone else.

“It’s funny, because we’re not the ones saying it,” Metcalf said. “He’s the one saying it. He knows. He knows this is for coach Walsh.”

So, is this Black Bear squad a team of destiny? Is a third national title in the offing? Is this Whitehead’s team? Is it Walsh’s?

The first two answers remain to be written. Whitehead will handle the last two.

“I think it’s our team,” Whitehead said. “It’s the players’ team just as much as anybody’s. It’s the coaching staff’s. But I think the most important thing is Shawn is [everyone’s] inspiration to continue to commit ourselves to achieve our goals.”

And there’s something else you should know. Most game nights, it’s Whitehead who carries the symbolic jersey back to the dressing room as he did after Saturday’s victory. On Sunday, he thinks Metcalf made the right decision. He tried to tell him so, but … you know, it was just so loud, he couldn’t get the player’s attention to tell him to take the victory lap.

But you know what happened next. Metcalf felt something. Whitehead felt the same thing.

And afterward, Whitehead knew the scene had been the perfect capper to a storybook weekend.

“It was just what should have happened,” he said.