One thing University of Maine men’s hockey coach Tim Whitehead and his Black Bears feel could help them in the NCAA Tournament is their experience in one-goal games.

Maine (30-7-3), which will face 18-14-3 Harvard in Friday’s 5 p.m. East Regional game in Albany, N.Y., has gone 12-4 in one-goal games including eight wins in its last nine.

The Bears’ last five victories have all been by one goal, including a 4-3 overtime triumph over Boston College that started the streak and the 2-1 triple-overtime victory over Massachusetts in the Hockey East tournament title game.

The Bears are 3-1 in two-goal games.

“Any time you can win 12 one-goal games in a year, it says a lot for your team,” said junior right wing John Ronan. “You can really clamp down defensively when you have to. You can play when the chips are on the table. It has been a great learning experience for everybody on how to come through in the clutch.”

“That’s incredible. It’s a testament to our goaltending [Jimmy Howard, Frank Doyle]. That says right there how good our goaltending is and how well our defense plays for us,” said sophomore center Derek Damon.

He said the Bears are comfortable in close games.

“We’ve been in this situation so many times, we know how to respond and react. If we’re down by a goal or up by a goal, we know how to play in those types of situation. That’s good for this team,” said Damon.

“It can’t be anything but good, I guess, for us to be prepared for the tournament,” said sophomore left wing Greg Moore. “Every team here on out will be real tough and there will be close games. That experience should carry over well.”

Junior defenseman Troy Barnes agreed with Damon about the goaltenders.

“The key to winning those close games is the goaltending. They can bail you out. They can steal games for you and they’ve done that all year for us,” said Barnes.

Whitehead said part of the character of his team has been its ability “to concentrate and perform in close games. We’re comfortable in these situations and that’s very important because that’s what we expect our games to be like.

“If you compare our team to a prize fighter, we’re a body-punching type of team,” said Whitehead. “We’re going to get you, get you and get you and, eventually, we’ll wear you down. We’ll out-survive you. We’re not a big one-punch team. We’re more comfortable in those close, low-scoring games where team defense is the determining factor.”

“We have confidence in our ability to play well in tight games,” said Doyle.

Maine is 25-0-1 when leading after two periods.

Bears in mini-drought

Maine has been in a little scoring drought of late, averaging just 1.66 goals per game in its four Hockey East Tournament games.

However, they allowed just four goals and won all four.

“There’s a little concern. But that’s why we rely on our defense a lot, too. When you’re a good defensive team and you’ve got Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle in nets, you aren’t going to have to score five or six goals. As long as we keep our defensive game intact, the goals will come and hopefully we’ll get enough to win,” said Barnes.

“Ultimately, we’re winning and that’s all that matters,” said Ronan. “But we want to give ourselves a break by getting a couple more goals. We’ve got to get back to basics. We’ve got to get the puck to the net, get traffic in front and get some ugly goals.”

Moore said he doesn’t think their production has been “too bad when you consider how good Hockey East is. We’ve got strong teams in Hockey East and goals are hard to come by, especially when teams are playing at their best, defensively.”

Ronan recalls OT winner

Ronan said his game-winning overtime goal in Maine’s 4-3 win over Harvard in the NCAA Tournament two years ago seems like “a real long time ago.

“I didn’t score for 11 months after that,” said Ronan. “I remember the first time I watched a clip of that goal. We prided ourselves as a defensive line and we gave up a 4-on-1.”

The Harvard player shot wide on the 4-on-1 and Paul Falco chipped the rebound to Ronan, who converted off a 2-on-1 with Ben Murphy.

“We caught a break and it led to a pretty good season,” said Ronan.