Seven recruits may boost UMaine’s special teams Penner, Aquino won’t return to Bears next season

The University of Maine’s NCAA runnerup hockey team was the stingiest in Division I, surrendering only 1.57 goals per game.

But the 33-8-3 Bears were just 16th in scoring (3.2 goals per game), being held to two goals or less 17 times, and neither the power play (15.8 percent) or the penalty-killing (84.5 percent) unit finished among the top 20.

Those were some of the recruiting areas addressed by head coach Tim Whitehead, assistant and recruiting coordinator Grant Standbrook and assistants Campbell Blair and Guy Perron.

The seven-member recruiting class announced by the school Friday includes five players who put up impressive numbers for their respective teams this past season.

Forwards Keenan Hopson Rob Bellamy and Wes Clark all scored at least 22 goals and defensemen Bret Tyler and Tim Maxwell racked up 20 and 16, respectively.

To go with those five, Matt Lundin, brother of Bear defenseman Mike Lundin, was chosen the state of Minnesota’s best senior goalie and will back up All-American goalie Jimmy Howard, and 6-4, 211-pound Californian Travis Ramsey is considered a “strong defensive defenseman” by Whitehead.

Maine graduated leading point-producer Colin Shields (18 goals, 26 assists), top goal scorer Todd Jackson (21 & 12) and leading offensive defenseman Prestin Ryan (4 & 18).

In addition, 6-foot-4, 230-pound junior right wing Dustin Penner (11 & 12) will pass up his senior year after signing with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Whitehead said freshman winger Luc Aquino (4 & 5 in 20 games) has decided to pursue a Major Junior career.

“We’re very pleased with the players coming in. One of the areas we need to improve is our offense and we have some guys coming in who can contribute.”

Whitehead added that Maine also needs to upgrade its special teams and some of the incoming freshmen should help in those areas.

He said the Bears may also bring in another forward “but we will only take somebody if they are an elite player or have the potential to be an elite player.”

Hopson had 34 goals and 66 assists in 58 games for Prince George of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League and was the team’s Most Valuable Player.

Bellamy led the Junior Coyotes of the Eastern Junior Hockey League in scoring with 26 goals and 28 assists in 43 games and Tyler was third in scoring for the Junior Bruins in the same league with 20 & 58 in 63 games.

Clark had 22 goals and a team-leading 35 assists with the Milton Icehawks in the (Ontario) Provincial Junior Hockey League and is the organization’s 11th all-time scorer with 120 points in two seasons.

Maxwell had 16 goals and 31 assists in 58 games for Sherwood Park in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and may be moved to forward, according to Whitehead.