Walsh family proud of Maine’s runner-up season Bears battled from start to finish

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Eleven minutes before the face-off for the NCAA hockey championship game between the University of Maine and Minnesota, the phone rang in Kevin Walsh’s house. Walsh, the youngest brother of the late Shawn Walsh, the 18-year Maine coach who died of complications from kidney cancer on Sept. 24, had 25 family members on hand to watch the game.

Kevin Walsh answered the phone and couldn’t believe who was on the other end.

“It was Tim Whitehead [Maine’s head coach],” said Kevin. “I couldn’t believe he called me. Somebody had told him we were all together. He was with the other assistant coaches and he told me they wouldn’t let us down. He did such a fantastic job and has handled himself with such class.”

The Bears didn’t win the game, losing 4-3 in overtime, but Kevin Walsh said the team certainly didn’t let them down.

“Just because they didn’t put a ‘W’ in the column or a trophy in the case doesn’t mean they didn’t play their hearts out,” said Walsh. “That may have been the best championship game I’ve ever seen, even better than the New Hampshire game in 1999 and we won that one [3-2 in overtime]. That was as good as the Super Bowl [New England’s last-second 20-17 win over St. Louis] and that was a great Super Bowl.

“Shawn would have been so proud of the players,” said Kevin Walsh.

He’s right.

A victory would have provided a Hollywood ending to a remarkable script. But that shouldn’t diminish this team’s accomplishments under Whitehead, who was named the head coach Monday.

This team battled tooth-and-nail with the Gophers, who had a huge home-crowd advantage.

The fans in the hockey-crazed state of Minnesota – in addition to their legendary tradition in high school boys hockey – hadn’t rejoiced in a national championship since 1979.

The Bears had the Gophers on the ropes, only 52.4 seconds or an empty-net goal away from claiming their third national championship in 10 years.

But Matt Koalska’s goal with 52.4 seconds left tied it and the rejuvenated Gophers controlled the overtime until Grant Potulny won it on the power play with 3:02 remaining in the extra session.

There wasn’t much that could have been done on the Koalska goal.

The desperate Gophers caught a break when the puck squirted to Koalska after Maine’s Peter Metcalf and Minnesota’s Troy Riddle whacked at it.

But Koalska alertly swept the puck to the net and it skipped under Maine goalie Matt Yeats’ stick.

The tripping call on Maine’s Michael Schutte in overtime, that led to the winning goal, was legitimate.

Whenever you have somebody lined up for a body check and they move at the last instant, there is a natural reaction to stick out your leg.

However, referee Steve Piotrowski had let several other infractions go, both ways, and neutral- zone infractions are rarely called in overtime. Usually, penalties are only called in overtime if they involve a malicious hit or an infraction that stops a high-percentage scoring opportunity.

But it was up to Maine to kill the penalty as it did in the waning moments of its first-round win over Harvard. And the Bears couldn’t do it. Even the best power plays are only successful 30 percent of the time.

Maine senior defenseman and captain Peter Metcalf said Piotrowski “had it in for us” and the NCAA shouldn’t have allowed him to referee the game.

That dates back to last season when he called back-to-back penalties against Maine late in their 3-1 quarterfinal loss to Boston College.

A holding penalty on Francis Nault with 4:33 left and a tripping call on Matthias Trattnig at the 3:04 mark gave the Eagles a two-man advantage and they scored the clinching goal four seconds after Nault’s penalty had expired.

Walsh gave Piotrowski an earful and was assessed a minor penalty. He continued to berate Piotrowski and was then ejected by the CCHA referee. Three Maine players, including current players Metcalf and Chris Heisten, were assessed 10-minute misconducts.

Maine can’t blame Saturday’s loss on Piotrowski.

But Metcalf was right in that he shouldn’t have had the game.

The highly unusual circumstances in the Boston College game last year and Walsh’s death left strong emotions lingering.

The NCAA should have been sensitive to that situation and assigned either another CCHA referee or an ECAC ref.

However, Piotrowski was consistently poor for both teams.

Minnesota’s Jeff Taffe probably should have received a five-minute major for his hit-from-behind that hurt Maine’s Paul Falco. And Gopher goalie Adam Hauser should have received a penalty or two for brandishing his stick like a weapon.

But there were infractions committed by Maine players that weren’t called, either.

Minnesota received six power plays to Maine’s four.

The bottom line is Minnesota capitalized on a couple of bounces and were as equally deserving of the win as was Maine.

The Bears should have been behind 2-0 or 3-0 instead of 1-0 after the first period and that would have been very difficult to overcome. Yeats was exceptional in the first period and the Gophers kept missing the net.

Maine had a slight edge in the second period and was the better team in the third period until the equalizer.

Maine certainly received some breaks en route to the title game.

If Harvard had put a shot on net during a four-man rush in overtime instead of missing the net and having the long rebound trigger a game-winning two-on-one Maine, instead of Harvard, might have been boarding a bus home.

A five-minute major and game disqualification for spearing on Boston University’s Justin Maiser in the first period the NCAA quarterfinal played a role in Maine’s 4-3 triumph over the Terriers as did the fact senior defenseman Pat Aufiero was injured and couldn’t play.

The 7-2 win over New Hampshire in the semifinals might have been different if Sean Collins had scored instead of hitting the post with the score 4-2.

This Maine team overachieved.

The Bears are like the poor country cousin with the hand-me-down clothes and tattered sneakers.

They go head-to-head with lucrative programs that don’t have to face a $202,000 overall budget cut like the Maine athletic program is facing.

Will the hockey program get an Olympic-sized ice sheet in honor of Walsh or have renovations made to Alfond Arena so trainer Mark Badurak has a real training room instead of an area a little bigger than a walk-in closet?

No.

The Bears overachieve because they outwork teams, they believe in themselves, they receive die-hard support from the entire state and they had a coach who thrived on challenges and created that us-against-the-world mentality among his players.

Maine’s four appearances in NCAA championship games over the last 10 years is tops among the nation’s Division I schools.

Maine is the only school in Hockey East without a recruiting back yard, an area within a 90-minute drive with a horde of Division I prospects.

But assistant coach Grant Standbrook finds them everywhere and once here, they develop.

This year, they also had a very special individual who took this team on his shoulders and wouldn’t let it fail: senior defenseman Peter Metcalf.

“I have never seen a player leave more on the ice than Peter Metcalf. He doesn’t leave anything in the locker room,” said Kevin Walsh.

Metcalf, right winger Niko Dimitrakos and goalies Mike Morrison and Matt Yeats will depart.

The choice of Whitehead as the head coach Monday was the right move.

What more could he have done other than win the national championship?

He could very well win the Spencer Penrose Award as the nation’s top coach.

Whitehead will help put the Bears back among the nation’s elite again next year.