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Except for the host, there won’t be any big names in the Black Bear Classic this weekend.
In fact, the University of Maine Black Bears are the only team from one of college hockey’s four major conferences in the tournament.
Atlantic Hockey league teams Holy Cross and Sacred Heart will open the tourney at 4 p.m. Friday with Maine and the U.S. National Development Program’s Under-18 facing off at 7.
Maine will play at 7 p.m. Saturday against either Sacred Heart or Holy Cross. Depending upon the outcome of Friday’s games, it could be either the championship or consolation game.
There will be a championship/consolation game at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Maine coach Tim Whitehead said it will be the final Black Bear Classic for a while and said this tournament only became a reality after the Maverick Stampede, won by the Bears last weekend, became an NCAA- exempt tournament.
That means the games won’t count against the NCAA maximum of 34 regular season games and an exhibition.
Any games against the U.S. Under-18 team are exhibitions.
“We were just going to play an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 team but when the Maverick Stampede earned the exemption, that gave us two extra games,” explained Whitehead. “It’s very difficult to attract teams to a tournament if they know one of the games could be an exhibition game.”
Whitehead said several schools turned him down but Sacred Heart coach Shaun Hannah was interested and suggested adding Holy Cross to the field and having their game with Holy Cross be a countable league game.
Whitehead said in addition to adding a game with either Sacred Heart or Holy Cross to his schedule, he was also able to book a game against Dartmouth on Dec. 13.
The Maine coach said just because there won’t be any big-name teams doesn’t mean the tournament won’t be competitive.
“All the kids on the U.S. Under-18 team are probably going to play Division I hockey and they’ll have a lot of talent. And I know both Sacred Heart and Holy Cross will be excited to play us,” said Whitehead. “We’ll certainly be up against some hungry teams.”
Maine senior left winger and captain Todd Jackson said, “Any time you can get tournament experience, it’s going to help you.”
Junior center Ben Murphy added, “Anybody in college hockey can beat anybody else on a given night. You can’t take anyone lightly.”
Two years ago Sacred Heart (Conn.) came to Maine and tied the Bears 4-4. Maine played in the NCAA title game that season, losing 4-3 in overtime to Minnesota.
Maine goalie Jimmy Howard and Jackson also said it will be interesting to play against a team they used to play for in the U.S. Under-18 team. Bear right winger Greg Moore is another U.S. National Development Program team alum.
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