Bears roar into Frozen Four final UMaine routs bitter rival New Hampshire 7-2 in NCAA hockey playoffs

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ST. PAUL, Minn. – Pick an exclamation, and you probably got to use it during the University of Maine’s 7-2 win over New Hampshire in Thursday’s NCAA men’s hockey semifinal.

Over the course of 60 minutes of hockey, the reaction of Maine fans likely evolved from “oops” after Peter Metcalf’s early turnover – and the resulting New Hampshire goal, just 21 seconds into the game – to “uh-oh” when, three seconds later, the Black Bears put UNH on the power play.

Profanity excluded, there probably were some “yays,” “yesses,” and even a couple of “yippees” when the Bears killed off that penalty (and three other Wildcat efforts with an extra man).

But at some point, as the game evolved from a border war between bitter Hockey East rivals into something entirely unexpected, the words had to evolve, too.

Pick a few more. We’ve got time. How about “No way.” Or “you’ve gotta be kidding me.” Or “there’s another one.”

Or perhaps this. It’s a word that puts the four-goal, third-period blitz in perspective. It’s a word you all probably heard. It’s one many of you used. It fits.

Wow.

Think the Black Bears weren’t thinking the same thing as they systematically dismantled the nation’s No. 1-ranked team in front of 19,214 fans, the largest crowd to ever watch a college hockey game in Minnesota?

Think again. They didn’t just think it. They felt it.

“When the fifth goal went in, we were jumping up and down on the bench,” said freshman Paul Falco, who scored the sixth and seventh goals and assisted on the game-tying score.

Maine will play for the national title at 7 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Thursday night’s game between Michigan and Minnesota.

After Maine’s fifth goal, Falco said, his teammates were trying to stay calm.

“Everyone’s saying, ‘relax, relax, relax.’ But in your head, you’re going a mile a minute, you’re thinking, ‘We’re really doing this. We’re really doing this,”‘ he said.

They were.

But hockey’s a funny game. Momentum swings. Then it swings back. A team gets all of the quirky hops of a spinning slab of rubber for long periods of time, then finds out it’s not quite enough after all. The momentum swings back. The opponent answers. And a team rides home in silence, asking itself the dreaded what-ifs.

“You’ve got to keep going,” senior captain Metcalf said. And he has proof: He remembers what happened back on March 1, when his team beat up Boston University early and piled up an 8-2 lead. The game ended up 9-6, and it taught the Bears a lesson.

“You’ve got to keep rolling,” Metcalf said. “You can’t play defensive. When you’re hot, you’re hot.”

The heroes were plentiful Thursday. Metcalf scored two goals and assisted on another, as did birthday boy Robert Liscak. Goalie Mike Morrison was solid.

Falco said he talked with his goaltender Wednesday night and shared a secret about the Wildcats.

“I was kind of joking with Morrison the night before, saying that if they come down and score early, I know we’re gonna win the game, because they’re gonna come back with their smiles,” Falco said.

“They’ve been a cocky team, and they think they’re the best,” he said.

The way the game started, Falco had some second thoughts.

“They score 21 seconds in, and my heart sunk,” he said. “I didn’t think they were gonna score that early. That’s too early.”

No, it wasn’t.

Liscak answered. Then Metcalf answered another UNH goal to make it 2-2. Metcalf again. And Liscak. And Lucas Lawson. And Falco … twice.

Go ahead. Say it.

Wow.

Liscak, for one, said he never really felt comfortable. Well, at least not until Falco’s final goal made it 7-2 with 3:39 left to play and put the finishing touch on the blowout.

“It was a great feeling,” Liscak said of the game-ending, four-goals-in-eight-minutes binge. “Everybody knew what they had to do, and everybody did it. Everybody kept going. Everybody believed that we’re gonna get it. We’re gonna get it.”

Falco said the goals were a result of a sound strategy, and a goaltender who struggled.

“From the get-go, we saw after a couple of shots that [UNH’s Michael Ayers] was shaky and he was definitely tentative,” Falco said. As the game progressed, the tactic of tossing the puck to the front of the net and following aggressively started to pay off. Just like coach Tim Whitehead had predicted.

“He said, ‘The traffic’s gonna be huge, it’s how we’re gonna win the game,”‘ Falco said. “And it happened. We could see it, too. We didn’t even need a coach to tell us. We could all see it.”

Falco, for one, knew the Bears had it made … eventually. He said that after they took a 5-2 lead, he knew they’d play for a national title Saturday night.

Forget all those hockey cliches. Forget playing for 60 minutes. Falco knew.

“Usually at the end of 60 minutes you find out if you won the game or not,” Falco admitted. “But it was really good tonight because we kind of knew at 50 minutes, 55, that we had won the game.”

And you know what that means. So does Metcalf.

“We’re here. It’s now. Now we’re gonna take advantage of it. We’re just gonna live the moment,” he said.

Wow.