Border war resumes tonight Black Bears and Wildcats meet in battle of Hockey East elite

ORONO – The resumption of the Northern New England border war.

That’s what you could dub Friday night’s Hockey East game between the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire at Alfond Arena.

The rivalry has heightened in recent years because the teams have been in the hunt for the national championship and have wound up facing each other twice in the last four NCAA Frozen Fours.

Maine won the NCAA championship game in Anaheim, Cal. in 1999, 3-2 in overtime, and then stunned the Wildcats 7-2 in a national semifinal in St. Paul last April.

The 8-1-1 Bears and 7-1-2 Wildcats have been two of the country’s elite teams as Maine has made 12 NCAA Tournament appearances and qualified for eight Frozen Fours over the last 16 years while UNH has seven NCAA bids and three Frozen Four appearances over the last 11 seasons.

Maine has two NCAA titles while UNH is still looking for its first.

UNH will be without All-American right wing Colin Hemingway, who has scored 40 goals in his last 50 games. He received a fighting major and game disqualification after getting speared by Boston College’s Patrick Eaves in UNH’s 3-2 overtime win over the previously undefeated Eagles on Tuesday.

But don’t expect Maine to be overconfident.

“Our guys have a lot of respect for UNH,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “We know they have a lot of depth, just like we do. We’ve had to play games last year and this year while missing players but we’ve been able to play well. And we know they’re going to play really well.”

“They’ll put another guy in his slot and they won’t lose a step at all,” predicted Maine senior center Marty Kariya.

“It’s unfortunate that we won’t have him. But we’ll move on,” said UNH coach Dick Umile.

Maine senior left winger and captain Chris Heisten added that the Wildcats will have an extra weapon in their arsenal.

“We beat them in the semifinals last year and they’ll definitely use that [as motivation],” said Heisten.

Senior right winger Lucas Lawson said the games with New Hampshire are always “battles” and he pointed out that “we haven’t done that well against them in the regular season.”

UNH holds a 4-3-2 regular season edge over the Bears in the previous three seasons.

Umile has watched the Bears on videotape and said he was impressed.

“I like what I saw. They have size and speed. They’re very good in transition, just like every other Maine team.” said Umile. “We’ve got to stay out of the penalty box and control their speed.”

It could come down to a goaltending duel and that has been a strength for both teams.

Mike Ayers, according to Umile, has played “great” all year and has particularly improved in scramble situations.

“He is definitely a good goalie. We’ve got to get a lot of traffic in front of him and try to score some dirty goals,” concurred Heisten. “They haven’t lost a step in goal since Ty Conklin graduated [2001].”

Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle have been equally stingy in goal for Maine.