Coaches pick UM men fourth Women’s hockey team ranked third in poll

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ORONO – Whether you call it reloading or rebuilding, the process began at the University of Maine’s Alfond Arena on Tuesday as the men’s hockey team took the ice for their first official practice.

The Bears were picked to finish fourth in Hockey East by the league’s coaches during media day in Boston Tuesday.

The Boston College Eagles were the unanimous pick to win the league title. They were followed by New Hampshire, Boston University, Maine, UMass, Providence, UMass-Lowell, Northeastern and Merrimack.

The University of Maine’s women’s hockey team was chosen third in the coaches poll behind unanimous No. 1 selection Providence College and the University of New Hampshire.

Following the Maine women were Boston College, UConn and Northeastern.

Nine first-year Bears took the ice for the men’s team on Tuesday and they will try to help replace the goals produced by eight departed players, who accounted for 60.7 percent of the goals.

“The first-year players looked good today,” said senior captain and left wing Todd Jackson. “They’re fitting right in. They’re all capable of contributing this season.”

“I know we’re young but we’ll get better as the year goes along,” added junior center-winger Ben Murphy.

Third-year coach Tim Whitehead and the players weren’t surprised about being picked fourth or about BC being chosen to win the league.

“Hopefully, we can surprise some people at the end of the year,” said Whitehead.

Last year, the same four teams were picked atop the league standings although it was BU, New Hampshire, BC and Maine, respectively.

“All four of us have proven we can win consistently and get into the NCAA Tournament most years,” said Whitehead. “Every year somebody displaces somebody in the top four and I’m sure it will probably happen again this year.”

Providence finished fourth last season while BU was fifth. UNH, BC and Maine were the top three, respectively.

BC returns its top 17 scorers and goalie Matti Kaltiainen.

Jackson said although the polls are meaningless “if you’re at the top of the polls, everybody is gunning for you. It’s a lot easier to sneak up on somebody if you don’t have a target on your back.”

He added that to be selected fourth, despite such significant personnel losses, “says something about the program and the respect people have for the tradition here.”

That tradition includes five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and three Frozen Four berths during that span.

Maine opens against two-time NCAA champ Minnesota in the Nebraska-Omaha tournament on Oct. 10. Whitehead said with so many new faces, they intend to keep the systems simple.

“We aren’t going to overcoach,” said Whitehead. “We’re going to have to do some very important teaching over the next 10 days. We’ll have to cram a lot in but not too much. We don’t want them going into their first game thinking too much.”

The annual Blue-White game will be Saturday at 7 p.m. in Orono.

Bears capitalize on extra time

The UMaine football team, which was caught off-guard by William & Mary’s cancellation of last week’s Atlantic 10 game at Williamsburg, Va., is back in game-week preparations for Saturday’s 2 p.m. conference clash against Richmond at Alfond Stadium in Orono.

The Black Bears (3-2, 2-1 Atlantic 10), who moved up one spot to No. 23 in The Sports Network’s Division I-AA Top 25 poll after being awarded a victory against William & Mary, tried to take advantage of the extra time the cancellation provided.

“Thursday, Friday and Saturday we practiced for Richmond and got an edge on our preparation for them, which is pretty much the standard way of doing things when you have a bye,” said UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove.

Cosgrove would have preferred the Bears bounce right back after a tough loss to Massachusetts by playing the following Saturday, but instead they’ve had to smooth out a few wrinkles on their own.

“I feel like we’ve done a very good job of practicing and preparing for Richmond,” Cosgrove said. “We did address some of the special situations that come up in a game in a kind of high-tempo; two-minute drill, third-and-long, those type of things.”

The major benefit of the layoff has been healing. While the respite won’t return any players to the lineup who have been sidelined by injuries, others who have been nursing nagging problems will return in better health.

“We managed our guys that were “bubble” guys and were banged up,” Cosgrove said. “We were very selective as to when they were involved [in practice] and what they participated in.”