UMaine men 2nd in poll HE coaches choose BC by slim margin

The University of Maine men’s hockey team has been picked to finish second in Hockey East in the coaches’ preseason poll while the women have been predicted to finish fourth.

Boston College was chosen to defend its regular-season title, earning 68 points including five first-place votes. Maine was second, just two points back with three first-place votes.

Boston University (52) was third and had the other first-place vote. Rounding out the poll were New Hampshire (51), Massachusetts Lowell (45), Massachusetts (42), Northeastern (28), Providence (26), and Merrimack (18).

New Hampshire was coaches’ choice in the women’s poll with 29 points and four first-place votes. Providence was second with 27 points and the other two first-place votes followed by Boston College (27), Maine (19), Connecticut (15) and Northeastern (10).

The Maine men were chosen to finish fourth a year ago but wound up second, just one point behind the Eagles.

“That’s fine. That’s where we finished last year and we were fortunate enough to win the league playoff championship which was a thrill for our guys,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.

He said he and his players don’t put a lot of stock in the poll.

“Last year we were picked for fourth and we ended up winning the league [tournament] and being second in the country.

“Now the shoe’s on the other foot and we’re perhaps ranked a little higher than we thought we would [be] and that’s fine,” Whitehead said. “It’s good experience for us.”

Maine senior right wing and co-captain John Ronan said it’s “great to be thought of that highly but, at the same time, that’s somebody else’s opinion of our team and they haven’t seen us. We think we have a good team and look to contend in Hockey East and in the national picture.”

Senior defenseman Troy Barnes said polls “don’t affect us.”

He pointed out that the team wasn’t nationally ranked early last season and made it to the NCAA championship game.

“But we were No. 1 for nearly half the season two years ago and didn’t do half as well as we did last year,” said Murphy, referring to Maine’s first-round exit from the NCAA tournament in 2002-2003.

“We’ve just got to focus on one game at a time,” added Barnes.

The Maine men will open at Vermont Sunday afternoon at 2 with the women beginning their season Oct. 15-16 at Vermont.

Husson, Castleton play four

There is very little John Winkin hasn’t been involved in or witnessed in his long association with baseball, which spans more than 70 years.

But the Husson College coach and former University of Maine and Colby College skipper did accomplish a first last Saturday: four games in one day.

His Eagles played in a tournament hosted by Saint Joseph’s College of Standish and played four seven-inning games as did Castleton State (Vt.). Two fields were used.

Husson beat Castleton State 5-3 in the final after sandwiching wins over Saint Joseph’s (6-5) and Thomas College of Waterville (4-3) around a 2-1 loss to Castleton State.

“It was a great experience for us because it was a real trial of getting everybody in sync for next spring,” said Winkin. “The NCAA rules are such that we can only have one day of outside competition in the fall.”

He credited Saint Joseph’s coach Will Sanborn with coming up with the idea “and we all went along with it.”

Winkin used 25 players, including 11 pitchers, in the four games.

“We had outstanding pitching,” said Winkin.

Husson third baseman-first baseman-right fielder Kyle Mathieu said it was “exhausting.

“But we had a good time. The guys were right into it the whole time and we ended up winning the tournament. So it ended up good,” said Mathieu.