ORONO – You would think there would be some skepticism among head coach Tim Whitehead and the University of Maine’s Black Bears pertaining to the goaltending situation this season.

After all, redshirt sophomore Frank Doyle and 18-year-old freshman Jimmy Howard haven’t played a minute of college hockey. Seniors Matt Yeats and Mike Morrison tended the nets for the NCAA finalists the past three years.

But Whitehead and the Maine players don’t feel goaltending will be a weakness by any stretch of the imagination.

“I’m kind of excited about our goalies,” said junior winger Colin Shields. “Frank is obviously a tremendous goalie. No one knows anything about him apart from the guys who practiced against him last year and Jimmy is coming in from the USA program and he’s really excited about this opportunity this year. It’s going to be a good battle between both of them. We’ve got some great goalies here and everybody in the locker room is confident in them. Once the fans get a chance to see them, they’ll be confident, too.”

The 22-year-old Doyle practiced with the Bears last season but couldn’t play because he had played for Sarnia in the Ontario (Major) Junior Hockey League in 1998 and had to sit out a year.

Howard began last season with the United States National Development Program’s U-17 team and was then moved up to the U-18 team and helped lead them to the gold medal in the U-18 World Championships in Slovakia.

“They are both very capable of helping this team and they will both get the opportunity to play right from the start. Hopefully, that will continue throughout the year,” said Whitehead. “If one of them struggles a little bit, we can go with the other guy for a while before going back to the other guy.”

Doyle will have to sit out the first two games of the season due to his two-game stint with Sarnia.

“There’s no question mark as far as I’m concerned,” said senior center-winger Tommy Reimann. “Doyle sat out last year and got to watch two of the best goalies in the country while also having Grant [assistant Grant Standbrook] teach him every day. And Jimmy has looked real good in our captains practices.”

Howard said, “I think it’s a great situation for the both of us. There’s not a whole lot of pressure on us. We’ve just got to go out and play and prove how good we are.”

“The practices were real high-tempo last year,” said the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Doyle. “I know that’s different from game situations but I got into a lot of games this past summer back home [Guelph, Ontario]. I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about Jimmy and he got to play a lot of NCAA schools with the US under-18 team last year so I’m sure he is prepared to play, too.”

Howard, a 6-1, 204-pounder from Ogdensburg, N.Y. played against St. Cloud State when the Huskies were ranked No. 1 in the country.

“I got a feel for that. Instead of playing against the number one team in the nation, hopefully we’ll be that this year,” said Howard who was 16-8-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average and .933 save percentage.

Freshman Greg Moore, Howard’s teammate on the U-18 team, said “I know Jimmy will be able to compete at this level. He’s a real good goalie. I’m confident he can do it.”

Sophomore Kirk Levesque from Fort Kent and freshman Ray Jean of Randolph, a former standout at Gardiner High, will back them up.

Doyle said practicing with the team a year ago was beneficial.

“First of all, in the college game, the players are a lot more skilled. They not only have quick shots, their shots have a lot more accuracy,” said Doyle. “From coach Standbrook and the other goalies [Morrison and Yeats] I learned that goaltending is so specific in what you have to do. I learned so many new aspects on what I had to improve on.

“One of the things coach Standbrook stressed last year was reading the play, looking at players’ eyes to see where they’re looking, focusing in on his stick to see where he’s going with the puck,” said Doyle.

Howard and Doyle said knowing that the program has produced five NHL goalies over the past 16 seasons won’t put any added pressure on them.

“You know they’re doing something right here and that Grant is a great guy to work with,” said Howard.