University of Maine men’s hockey coach Tim Whitehead will continue to experiment with his lineup this weekend when the St. Lawrence University Saints invade Alfond Arena for two games.

In Saturday night’s 6-2 win over Niagara, only one line and one defense tandem was intact from Friday night’s 4-3 win over the Purple Eagles.

They were the line of Michel Leveille between Brent Shepheard and Greg Moore and the defense duo of Mike Lundin with Bret Tyler.

There were 11 freshmen and sophomores in Saturday’s lineup, including freshman goalie Matt Lundin, who made his first start. There were five players in Saturday’s lineup who didn’t play on Friday.

After hosting the Saints, the Bears begin Hockey East play at Merrimack and Boston University the following weekend.

“We’re going to use the next two weeks as a training camp type of scenario,” said Whitehead. “We’ll use different combinations. We want to make sure we give everyone an opportunity to play when they deserve it. It’s important to fine-tune our systems. We want to arrive at our league schedule with confidence we can play against anybody. We made good progress in that area this past weekend.”

He pointed out that he kept linemates and defense tandems from last season together as much as possible in the first three games because they didn’t have their first on-ice practice until the day before the season-opening 7-1 win at Vermont.

“But now we need to try to find different combos and find out who can play with who over the next couple of weeks,” said Whitehead. “Our depth is a positive attribute and we need guys to emerge as elite players. We started to see that last weekend. It was more evident on Saturday. Guys are starting to emerge and make big plays.”

He was pleased that his players, defensively, were able to “take away time and space more effectively the second night. We tried to be a lot more aggressive defensively. We’re more effective in that mindset.”

Matt Lundin’s 28-save performance impressed Whitehead to the point where he is likely to see some action this weekend.

“It was a great opportunity for him to get his first start and he rose to the challenge,” said Whitehead. “He was very assertive. He was aggressive on wide-angle shots. He covered the whole angle and pounced on loose pucks around the crease. He limited their second and third shots. He’s very quick.”

Whitehead understands what may be in store for his goalie.

“It will be a process for him. It’s his freshman year and he’ll have some ups and downs. But he established himself in his first start as a legitimate goaltender. He wants to keep building now.”

The other four freshmen in the lineup, right wing Rob Bellamy, left wing Billy Ryan, and defensemen Tim Maxwell and Tyler also turned in strong games, according to Whitehead.

“Our young guys have played great right off the bat,” said senior center Ben Murphy. “They’ve been a big help. They can even go out and kill penalties so the upperclassmen don’t get as tired. That makes our whole team flow.”