Now that the 2001-2002 college hockey season is in the books, it is time to look ahead to 2002-2003.

Will the University of Maine Black Bears have a national championship-caliber team?

Barring major injuries, yes.

But getting back to another Frozen Four isn’t assured because of the unpredictable nature of the sport and the fact several of the NCAA Tournament teams will suffer minimal losses.

Just look at the other Frozen Four teams: New Hampshire and Michigan lose just three players and national champ Minnesota loses six.

Next year’s Maine team could be better than this year’s team. That doesn’t mean they will go as far. You need some puck luck to reach an NCAA championship game.

Maine loses its top two scorers in right wing Niko Dimitrakos (20 goals, 31 assists) and defenseman and captain Peter Metcalf (9 & 41) along with goalies Mike Morrison (20-3-4, 2.19 goals-against average, .921) and Matt Yeats (6-8-3, 3.09, .887).

But they return everybody else and they will have stability now that Tim Whitehead has been elevated from interim to head coach. They will also have the added motivation that goes with being 52.4 seconds away from winning the national championship.

Metcalf’s leadership will be hard to replace but there will be a nine-member senior class and leaders should emerge from that group.

The 2002-2003 Bears could be more explosive than this year’s team, which finished fourth in the country in offense (4.23 goals per game) and seventh in power-play efficiency (24.8 percent).

Maine finished 14th in team defense (2.64 gpg) and will need to improve its penalty-killing (81 percent).

Colin Shields (29 & 17), Marty Kariya (16 & 28), Robert Liscak (17 & 20), Tommy Reimann (12 & 23), Lucas Lawson (18 & 13), Todd Jackson (7 & 21) will headline the list of returning forwards along with Gray Shaneberger (7 & 10) and the freshman line of Ben Murphy (7 & 9), Paul Falco (4 & 7) and John Ronan (5 & 4). Liscak had 4 & 3 in Maine’s last three NCAA tourney games and Lawson had 3 & 1.

Chris Heisten had an injury-marred season but scored three postseason goals and will be looking to have a productive senior season.

Matt Greyeyes, Don Richardson and Cameron Lyall will also be in the hunt for playing time along with redshirt Derek Damon.

Six-foot-one, 208-pound Greg Moore of Lisbon is an incoming recruit who has seven goals and 18 assists in 44 games for the U.S. National Development Program’s Under-18 Team.

The defense corps should be better although they will have to replace workhorse Metcalf.

Michael Schutte (13 & 18), Francis Nault (6 & 17) and Prestin Ryan (6 & 9) are offensive threats and Troy Barnes (0 & 4) may emerge into one, also.

Junior Cliff Loya (0 & 5) played well late and freshmen Paul Lynch (2 & 4) and Matt Deschamps (2 & 2), who played in 22 and 25 games, respectively, will vie for playing time.

Manitoba Junior Hockey League defensemen Steve Mullin and Travis Wight have verbally committed to Maine and, with the potential depth on defense, Whitehead may consider returning Schutte to forward.

The question mark will be in goal but redshirt Frank Doyle has impressed his teammates and incoming recruit Jim Howard currently has a 2.07 GAA in 20 games for the U.S. National Development Program’s Under-18 team.

Shanberger said Doyle is “really good. He’s tough to score on in practice.”

Reimann said, “He’s unbelievable. He knows where everybody is on the ice at all times.”

Doyle will miss 2 to 4 games because he played Major Junior hockey.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or e-mail lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.