Colby, Bowdoin men’s hockey off to strong starts

Bowdoin College’s Polar Bears and the Colby College Mules have established winning traditions in men’s hockey and both are off to good starts again.

They were 3-0 entering Tuesday night’s battle between the two archrivals in Brunswick and the Polar Bears prevailed 5-3.

Bowdoin, ranked fifth in the latest Division III U.S. College Hockey Online poll, has appeared in eight ECAC championship games in Coach Terry Meagher’s 19 seasons. Bowdoin has 25 postseason appearances in 29 years.

Colby, ranked 14th in the poll, has had nine consecutive winning seasons and coach Jim Tortorella has guided them to playoff berths in each of his first seven years.

Meanwhile, the state’s other small-college program, the University of Southern Maine, looks to improve upon last year’s 10-13-3 campaign. The Huskies are off to a 1-3 start.

The Mules, 15-7-3 and NESCAC semifinalist a year ago, have three Maine natives on defense, included converted forward Jared Gordon of Bangor, and they have all received significant minutes.

Sophomore Gordon has two assists in their four games and is paired with senior co-captain Sean O’Grady. Yarmouth products Nick Meintel, a junior, and Eric Molander, a sophomore, make up another tandem.

Meintel has three assists.

Tortorella said he wanted to capitalize on Gordon’s physical play and said Gordon is progressing well while making the transition from forward to defense.

He said Meintel is highly skilled and Molander moves well for a 6-foot-4, 240-pounder.

“They were two of our best defensemen against Bowdoin,” said Tortorella.

The former University of Maine goalie has two potent lines with Nick Bayley (4 goals, 5 assists) between Kevin Lyons (3 & 3) and Patrick Walsh (1 & 4) and Ross MacMillan (4 & 3) between Brian Chisholm (3 & 5) and converted senior defenseman Brock Barton (0 & 4). Versatile Cory Ernst (5 & 3) has played on a variety of lines.

Walsh will be out 4-6 weeks with a sprained knee ligament.

Bayley had a team-high 39 points as a freshman last year and Meintel’s 21 points led the defense corps.

He likes his team’s chances of making an eighth straight playoff appearance but said they will need more consistency from goalies J.D. Hadiaris of Saco and Chris Ries.

“I don’t worry about wins and losses. We try to take care of the little things and compete at a high level. The winning and losing will take care of itself,” said Tortorella.

In spite of his team’s 4-0 start, Bowdoin’s Meagher said there is plenty of room for improvement.

“To be quite frank, the upperclassmen we are counting on don’t have their A games right now,” said Meagher. “They need to step it up a bit. But I’m very pleased with the play of our freshmen at this point. They’re supposed to be supplementing the upperclassmen instead of the reverse.”

Bowdoin returned six of its top 10 scorers off last year’s 18-4-3 NESCAC semifinalist team.

“Our real strengths are a veteran goalie and an experienced set of defensemen who can move the puck,” said Meagher.

Junior goalie Mike Healey is 4-0 with a 2.78 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage.

The defense corps has been led by Peter Nasveschuck (3 & 1), Nate Riddell (2 & 2), Jared Porter (1 & 3), Ryan Seymour (1 & 2) and Jesse Minneman. Riddell and Minneman are freshmen.

Veterans Chris Pelletier (6 & 3) and Sean Starke (3 & 4), the third and second leading scorers a year ago, and freshman Adam Dann (3 & 2) are the leading scorers so far.

Jeff Beaney’s University of Southern Maine Huskies lost their top three scorers and have 18 freshmen and sophomores.

Freshman Matt Mendoza (3 & 3), sophomore defenseman Jon Lounsbury (0 & 5), who was the top returning scorer off last year’s team with 19 points, and freshman Franco Narcisi (0 & 4) have led the Huskies in the early going.

Captain Bobby Sloper has scored three goals and USM has received solid goaltending from sophomore Matt Collaton (1-3, 2.84 GAA, .915 save percentage).

Lewiston’s Russ Chapman has been a regular on the blue line and assistant captain Brian Aceto of Gorham was the team’s sixth-leading scorer last year.