ST. PAUL, Minn. – Tim Whitehead was in a bit of a hurry.

The University of Maine’s interim head coach was in a runway leading to the ice surface at the Xcel Energy Center late Friday afternoon.

He wanted to watch his next opponent, the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers, as they went through their practice paces. Any tidbit he can pick up could be beneficial.

His Black Bears will try to claim the school’s third NCAA men’s hockey championship Saturday night at 7 against a Minnesota team that hasn’t won the NCAA title since 1979 when the legendary Herb Brooks led the Gophers to their third championship in six years.

“They’re a dangerous team,” observed the 40-year-old Whitehead. “They’re like BU in that they pressure you all over the ice. They’re also like New Hampshire in that they’re dangerous in transition.”

Maine has already handled Boston University and its aggressive forechecking game 4-3 and followed that with a 7-2 triumph over a New Hampshire team that was unable to transition effectively against the tenacious Bears.

But there will probably be 19,000-plus on hand and the overwhelming majority will be wearing Maroon and Gold, not Blue and White.

“It’s going to be crazy out there,” said Maine junior center and Blaine, Minn., native Tommy Reimann. “Minnesota fans are among the best. As I’ve said before, we’re going to have to play a smart road game.”

Whitehead concurred.

“We have to be smart with the puck and get numbers back on defense,” said Whitehead.

Maine junior center Robert Liscak said, “We don’t want to get overexcited. We want to treat it as just another game. We can’t make it a big deal. We have to keep our focus and block out the crowd. It’s what happens on the ice that counts.”

Maine junior left winger Lucas Lawson said, “I’m not worried about playing in front of a big crowd. We’ve played in front of big crowds before like at North Dakota [11,599 and 11,538]. There weren’t many Maine fans there.”

Maine split that series in October.

Maine senior defenseman and captain Peter Metcalf said it will be important for his Bears to “set the tone and dictate the pace” from the opening whistle.

Minnesota sophomore left winger Grant Potulny and junior center Jeff Taffe, who combined for the three goals in Minnesota’s 3-2 win over Michigan Thursday, said they would like nothing better than to score first and fuel the crowd.

“Getting the first goal would be huge,” said Taffe.

Minnesota is 17-1-1 when it scores first. But the Bears are 8-4-3 when the opponents score first.

“We want to come out, play hard, finish our checks, and be aggressive,” said Potulny, who had a pair of goals against the Wolverines. “We’ve got to move our feet and move the puck.”

Taffe said the game will come down to hard work.

“Maine obviously has a lot of talent,” said Taffe. “They have good defensemen, pretty good goalies, and their forwards are great.”

Minnesota coach Don Lucia said the teams are similar in that they both have offensive-minded defensemen and are very good at transitioning the puck from defense to offense.

“They’re deep. They have three or four good lines. They don’t have one superstar, but they have a lot of very good players and a different guy scores every night,” said Lucia.

That has been particularly true in Maine’s seven playoff games between the Hockey East and NCAA Tournaments. Ten different Bears have two or more playoff goals and 11 have four or more points. Their six game-winning goals have come from different players.

“We have to get the puck deep,” said Lawson. “Their game is transition and we can’t afford to make mistakes at the offensive blue line.”

Reimann said the Bears must continue their recent trend of throwing the puck to the front of the Minnesota net and converging on it and driving hard to the front of it.

Senior Maine goalie Mike Morrison added that his mates will have to block out to prevent the Gopher forwards from getting in on the forecheck.

The Bears must also keep an eye on the Gopher defensemen, who have combined for 45 goals, including 20 off the stick of Hobey Baker Award winner Jordan Leopold.

Maine’s defensemen have scored 27 goals.