ORONO – Before the college hockey season began, referees were instructed by the various league commissioners and NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee members to crack down on all obstruction infractions.

They wanted to create more offense and a better flow to the game. They wanted to eliminate the clutching, grabbing and use of the stick to impede attacking players.

The result in the early going was a constant parade to the penalty box. The parade isn’t nearly as long these days.

University of Maine players feel the referees have thankfully eased off a little bit.

“It’s still called tighter than it was last year,” said Maine senior right wing and co-captain John Ronan. “But people are aware of that now. Every guy on every team knows what’s supposed to be called. There is more freedom out there. There’s more room to move around and get in on the forecheck compared to last year.”

“From my personal perspective, over the last couple of games, the refs haven’t been calling as much as they did at the beginning of the year,” said Maine junior center Derek Damon. “It’s good if they can ease up because at the beginning of the year, we weren’t getting any flow to the game. A lot of guys weren’t seeing a lot of ice. The top guys were getting too much ice [on special teams as well as their regular shifts] and were getting burned out. When it came time for the third period, they had no gas left in the tank.

“The way it’s been going the last couple of games has been good because it gives the whole team a chance to get rolling with all four lines. If you have a penalty here or there, it’s all right. You can handle it,” Damon added.

Damon said he has backed the new initiative “because it gives guys like myself a chance to show ourselves on the power play.”

“The refs have been more consistent in what they’ve been calling lately,” said sophomore defenseman Mike Lundin. “Teams have realized penalties are more a part of the game and they’re trying to stay away from them. I’m sure other teams are practicing like we are on how to avoid taking penalties.”

Lundin said early in the season, “every time you took your hand off your stick [and made any kind of contact with an opponent], they’d call a penalty. It was pretty ridiculous. Now you can take your hand off your stick [and make contact with an opponent] as long as you don’t obstruct too much. They’ll call it every once in a while but if you don’t do anything too bad, they’ll let it go.”

Maine senior defenseman Troy Barnes said the referees and the players have adapted to the new initiative.

“It was a learning process for the refs, too. They’ve learned how to control it [obstruction] a little more and they’ve done a good job making the game flow a little better,” said Barnes. “Our team understands the referees are just doing their jobs. You can’t blame the referees for giving you a penalty if you put yourself in that situation. You can only blame yourself.”

Maine has put its opponents on the power play 23 times over the past six games after giving them 36 man-advantages during the six previous games.

“We’ve realized we can’t get away with all the holding we did last year,” said junior defenseman Steve Mullin.

“I think it’s been working. Personally, I was a big fan of that. Even though I was one of the ones getting away with most of it [obstruction], I was pretty disgusted with the way you couldn’t skate through the neutral zone last year,” said Mullin who felt it noticeably limited their most skilled players.

UM women earn academic award

For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Maine women’s soccer team has earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Adidas Team Academic Award.

The Bears were one of 290 women’s soccer teams to receive the award, given to teams who whose cumulative grade point average is 3.0 or better for the academic year.

The Maine women compiled a 3.24 GPA.

“The fact that our program and players are achieving this level of excellence academically is no accident,” said coach Scott Atherley in a press release. “They work for everything they get on and off the field and they deserve great credit for their accomplishments. Our goal is to be the best team in the conference athletically and academically.”

On the field, Maine finished 13-6-1, won a share of the America East regular season title and played in the conference tournament’s championship game for the second straight year.