University of Maine hockey center Derek Damon, the team’s fourth-leading scorer last season, is recuperating from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee last Wednesday at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor.

Bangor’s Damon said he doesn’t expect to miss any time and should be ready for the start of dry-land training next month.

“I’m hoping to get the approval [from Dr. John West] so I can start heavy lifting and skating next week. Until then, I’m rehabbing it. I’m doing little things to get the knee strong again,” said Damon.

He said he “tore the meniscus in my left knee” while skating by himself after working at the University of Maine’s hockey school a couple of weeks ago.

“I was trying to get a little extra work in. I turned quickly and my knee gave out,” said Damon, who will be a junior in the fall.

He said he may have injured the knee last season but it never bothered him.

Damon had 13 goals and 18 assists for 31 points in 44 games a year ago to help the Black Bears reach the NCAA championship game, where they lost to Denver 1-0. His seven power-play goals tied him for the team lead with his former St. Dominic of Lewiston teammate Greg Moore of Lisbon.

Damon had an apparent goal against Denver called back when it was ruled that teammate Mike Hamilton’s skate was in the goal crease.

He said he can’t wait for the season to begin.

“I’m excited. I just want to get everything under way. It has been a long off-season, especially thinking about last year and how it ended,” said Damon, who had had nine goals and nine assists in 36 games two years ago.

He feels the Black Bears, 33-8-3 last season, will have a “strong team.

“I’m excited about what we have coming back, more so than last year because there wasn’t a lot expected out of us,” said Damon.

He added that he knows there will be plenty of top newcomers “because [assistants] Grant [Standbrook] and Campbell [Blair] always bring in top guys.”

“We’ll all have one goal in mind: win a national championship,” said Damon.

Bears ranked 11th nationally

The University of Maine football team has been ranked 11th nationally in the ESPN/USA Today Preseason Top 25 Division I-AA poll released Monday.

The Black Bears are one of five Atlantic 10 teams selected among the top 25.

The Atlantic 10 had more teams represented than any other I-AA conference.

Defending NCAA Division I-AA champ Delaware, with 16 starters back, has been chosen the first Atlantic-10 school to start the season ranked No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today poll since it began in 1997.

The Blue Hens received 26 of a possible 35 first-place votes.

In addition to Delaware and Maine, Villanova was ranked No. 10, the University of Massachusetts was ranked No. 19 and Northeastern was No. 21.

Maine went 7-5 last year and missed the NCAA playoffs for the first time in three years. The Black Bears won an NCAA playoff game in both the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

The Black Bears have four top-25 teams on their schedule as they will open on the road against No. 3 Montana on Sept. 4, visit Delaware on Oct. 2; host Northeastern on Oct. 23 and travel to UMass on Oct. 30.

Maine does not play Villanova during the regular season.

The Bears also will visit Division I Mississippi State on Sept. 18.