Bears vs. Michigan today

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The questions will finally be answered.

Will the University of Maine hockey team’s three-week layoff prove costly?

Can the Bears regain the form that carried them to a 20-2-4 mark through 26 games?

Or will their 4-7-1 finish carry over?

The 24-9-5 Black Bears will find out today at 3:30 p.m. when they face 28-9-3 Michigan at the Wolverines’ Yost Ice Arena in their first-round game in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional.

Top seed Colorado College, 29-6-5, will take on No. 4 Wayne State (Mich.), 21-16-2, in the noon opener.

Sunday’s championship game will start at 3 p.m.

Maine coach Tim Whitehead said that despite his team’s mediocre finish and three-week layoff, “we’ve practiced better the last two weeks than we have in a long time. I think we got a little burned out at the end.”

Based on Friday’s practice, it appears as though Whitehead has put struggling right wing Colin Shields on a line with leading point-getter Marty Kariya and top goal scorer Lucas Lawson. Shields, a 29-goal scorer a year ago, hasn’t lit the goal lamp in 17 games.

Lawson has 14 goals in his last 18 games and 16 goals in his last 22. Kariya has 31 points in his last 23 games, but has scored only once in his last 13.

Besides Lawson, the only other Bears who have more than one goal over the last five games are John Ronan, who has three, and linemates Gray Shaneberger and Todd Jackson, who have two in their last three games.

“It is a little different scenario this year. We aren’t peaking like we normally do. I really believe that’s what has carried us the last three seasons,” said senior center and assistant captain Kariya.

“It’ll be interesting to see what kind of outcome we get, whether or not we’re able to come back, individually and mentally, from the slide we’ve been on,” added Kariya, whose Bear teams have posted a 5-3 record in NCAA play and been to two Frozen Fours in three years.

Senior right winger Shaneberger said the Bears have to play like they did at the beginning of the season.

“We have to receive consistent backchecking from the forwards to make it easy for our goalies to make saves,” he said.

Shaneberger added that the Bears have to do a better job gapping so there isn’t too much room between the forwards and defensemen.

“Our overall team defensive play has to be better. We have had trouble getting the puck out of our zone. We’ll either hold on to the puck for two seconds [which is too long] or we won’t make the right play getting it out,” he said. “We’ve worked on that the most over the past two weeks and it’s made a huge difference. The fewer turnovers you make, the less time you spend in your zone.”

“If the forwards come back, it helps the defense so much,” said Bear senior defenseman Cliff Loya. “It makes it easy for us to step up and hold the [blue] line.”

He also said the Bears can’t afford to fall behind by two or three goals early like they have in recent games.

“One of our problems has been the first 10 minutes of games. You can’t keep coming back from 3-0 deficits, especially against a team like Michigan,” said Loya.

Maine fell behind Providence 3-0 in the first 9:06 of a 5-1 loss on Feb. 14, trailed Massachusetts 3-1 after two periods of a 4-2 loss on Feb. 21, and spotted UMass 3-1 and 3-0 leads in 5-3 and 4-2 Hockey East quarterfinal losses.

Kariya is expecting to have his best NCAA tournament yet.

“I’ve played half-decent in the NCAA playoffs, but it hasn’t been my strongest time of the year. It should be. As one of the key players, I want to really peak and I haven’t done that yet,” said Kariya. “I’m really looking forward to this tournament.”

He said it will be up to him and his teammates to “make it a personal vendetta to play the best games of our lives” against Michigan.

Playoff games always come down to goaltending, according to Kariya, and he said he has “huge confidence” in Bear goalies Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle, even though they have struggled of late.

Michigan coach Red Berenson said Maine’s three-week layoff doesn’t ensure that they will be rusty.

“We don’t know if it’s going to affect them positively or negatively,” said Berenson. “We’ve just got to play our game.”

Berenson added that “this has to be the year of the team” because he doesn’t have the superstars he has had in the past and his lineup will contain 13 freshmen and sophomores.

“We’ve got to come out of the blocks well. We can’t let them jump on us early. We’ve been stressing defense and positional play and making sure our team is ready,” said Wolverine leading scorer and left winger Jeff Tambellini.

Michigan goalie Al Montoya will appreciate a good defensive effort in front of him. The freshman leads the nation with 2,358 minutes, 45 seconds in playing time and is the youngest player in Division I hockey. Montoya, who turned 18 last month, is ready for the challenge.

“I’ve got to play my game and control what I can control. I can’t worry about what I can’t control. I’ve got to keep my focus, regardless of the score, because of the momentum swings in college hockey.”