ST. PAUL, Minn. – All season long, University of Maine interim head coach Tim Whitehead has kept his starting goalie choice a secret to the media until right before the game.

Seniors Mike Morrison and Matt Yeats haven’t found out until the night before a game which one of them will be between the pipes the next night.

That’s no different than Saturday night’s NCAA championship game with Minnesota.

Whitehead said his decision wasn’t predicated on trying to keep the opposing coach guessing who he was going to start.

“We have two good goalies and we want to see what they look like during the week [before we make a decision],” said Whitehead. “We’ve done it that way all year so we’re going to stick to it.”

If recent form continues, Yeats will get the start. Whitehead went with Morrison and then Yeats in the East Regional games two weekends ago.

Yeats said, “I would rather know earlier in the week but I’m used to it now and it has been working. So we might as well go with what’s working.”

He said if he gets the nod, it will be “exciting. It will be a lot of fun.”

Morrison likes the last-minute philosophy adopted by Whitehead.

“It makes each of us work extra hard in practice. We have these three-on-three scrimmage games and it makes them more competitive,” said Morrison. “If he had let us know early in the week, the one who wasn’t playing might get bitter and just go through the motions in practice.”

He also feels it is advantageous because the opposing teams have to prepare for both.

“Forwards like to visualize scoring against a particular type of goalie. I’m 6-foot-3 and Matt is 5-11,” said Morrison.

Yeats’ team won the three-on-three scrimmage Friday 2-1.

Maine’s penalty-killing excels

Maine’s penalty-killing had been suspect but its ability to shut down UNH’s torrid power play, which had operated at 30.1 percent, was a good sign for the final. UNH went 0-for-4 and the Wildcats even had a 35-second two-man advantage.

“The guys did a fantastic job. We worked on that all week,” said Maine interim head coach Tim Whitehead whose Bears had allowed power play goals in its four previous games and seven of its previous eight.

“We did a better job getting our sticks in the right place,” said junior right wing Gray Shaneberger.

“We pressured the puck more. We didn’t let them set up in the offensive zone,” said junior center Robert Liscak. ‘That was one part of our game we needed to improve on and we did.”

Maine will need to continue that trend against a very good Minnesota power play that is triggered by John Pohl and Jeff Taffe, who have 14 power play goals apiece.

Hobey Baker Award-winning defenseman Jordan Leopold has eight.

Tournament expansion likely

The NCAA Hockey Tournament will fatten the NCAA coffers by approximately $1 million according to Ice Hockey Committee member Ian McCaw, the athletic director at Northeastern University.

The tournament will, in all likelihood, expand from 12 to 16 teams next year and they will probably stage four, four-team regionals.

Next year also begins the first of an 11-year TV deal with CBS and ESPN for tournament coverage in several sports, including hockey.

“And we have been guaranteed that they will carry at least as many regional games as were shown this year,” said McCaw, who hopes they carry more games.

He said they intend to stagger the regional games, have some on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and others on Saturday and Sunday nights, to give ESPN-CBS an opportunity to show more games.

The TV Ratings have been spotty. Last year’s final between Boston College and North Dakota was viewed in 542,000 households. That was the fourth highest number in the seven years on ESPN. The first semifinal between North Dakota and Michigan State drew an ESPN2 record 176,000 households and the second semi between Boston College and Michigan was viewed in 211,000 households on ESPN2, the fourth highest for a second semi.

Thursday’s Maine-New Hampshire game was seen in 129,000 households. It was the second best for a first-game Frozen Four semifinal.

The Minnesota-Michigan game was watched in 241,000 homes. That’s the second best for the late national semifinal.

McCaw said they will require arenas considered for regionals to have seating for at least 6,000.

But he said there are a lot of logistical problems that have to be worked out, especially if the NCAA keeps its mandate of trying to keep teams within 400 miles of a regional site.

That was implemented in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and resulted in the regionals being exclusively provincial. There were six western teams in the Western Regional in Michigan and six eastern teams at the Eastern Regional in Worcester, Mass.

The same two sites, Worcester and Ann Arbor, Mich., will host regionals but they will need two others if the expansion is officially approved.

McCaw said if they had a 16-team field this past season, Maine and New Hampshire would have been placed in the same four-team regional. New Hampshire was the top seed but the eighth and ninth seeds would have been Colorado College and St. Cloud State.

Since they wouldn’t have sent Colorado College and St. Cloud State to the east, the seventh and 10th seeds would have been sent and Maine was the seventh seed.

The NCAA also tries to avoid having teams from the same conference play each other in the first round.

“We have a lot to discuss,” said McCaw.

Win over UNH sweet for UM fans

For Tom Rich of Cape Elizabeth and Windham’s Jim Allen, Maine’s 7-2 Frozen Four semifinal win over New Hampshire was particularly sweet.

They have a bunch of friends who are staunch UNH supporters and they took a ton of pregame abuse from them.

“They are so mouthy. And they’ve never won anything!,” said Rich, referring to the fact UNH has never won a national championship while the Black Bears will be gunning for their third Saturday night against Minnesota.

Rich said the victory over New Hampshire was the most enjoyable he has ever witnessed because it was so convincing.

“If it had been 15-2, it still wouldn’t have been enough for me,” said Rich.

Allen said “We were told by some high-level UNH fans that there was a boat show at the Whittemore Center (UNH’s home rink) on Sunday and they were worrying that it wouldn’t be available for their national championship celebration.”

Allen and Rich had traveled to Anaheim to watch Maine’s 3-2 overtime win over UNH in the NCAA title game in 1999.

Allen and Rich know the Bears will have their hands full against Minnesota.

“But I like the fact a Minnesota player won the Hobey Baker Award, [senior defenseman] Jordan Leopold,” said Allen, referring to the fact UNH’s Jason Krog won the Hobey in 1999 before Maine won the title.

Two other Maine fans, the father and son tandem of Gary and Scott Cran, feel the Bears have a legitimate shot.

“They need to play as well as they did in the second and third periods against New Hampshire,” said Gary Cran, a retiree and first-year season ticket holder who drove to Maine games from Owls Head. “There was a story in a paper saying how Maine had a chance to validate its season. They’ve done that already. To get this far is wonderful.”

Son Scott, who lives in Ohio, said, “They’ve had a phenomenal year. And I think they match up better against Minnesota than they would have against Michigan.”