Shepheard returning to lineup

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MINNEAPOLIS – Brent Shepheard said he is ready to go.

The University of Maine sophomore left winger and his mates will have to be ready if the fourth-seeded Black Bears, 20-12-7, are to upset the top-seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers, 26-14-1, on their Olympic-sized Mariucci Arena at the NCAA Tournament’s West Regional at 2:30 p.m. today.

Second seed Cornell, 26-4-3, and No. 3 Ohio State, 27-10-4, will meet in the 6 p.m. game.

The winners will play Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Shepheard has missed Maine’s last two games with an abdominal strain but has practiced all week and will take a regular shift Saturday as well as seeing duty on the power-play and penalty-killing units.

“I feel pretty good. I’ve had a good week in practice and I’m excited to get back in there and get some game action,” said Shepheard, who has 11 goals and 11 assists in 34 games. “It’ll probably take a few shifts until I’m fully back up to game speed. Practice is a lot different than games. But I rode the [stationary] bike and practiced all week, so my legs and wind shouldn’t be a problem.”

Senior right wing Ben Murphy said Shepheard will give the Bears a big lift.

“We didn’t have him last weekend [2-1 double-overtime loss to Boston College in the Hockey East semifinals] and it showed,” Murphy said. “We didn’t have his physical presence in the lineup, he’s a smart penalty-killer, and he also has a scoring touch we could use.”

Maine sophomore left wing Josh Soares said Shepheard is a force for the Bears.

“He’s a great hitter, he works really hard, he gets in there and does all the dirty work, and he puts the puck in the net,” Soares said.

Shepheard, who has four goals and five assists in his last seven games, will return to the left wing on a line with Michel Leveille and Greg Moore.

Murphy said the whole team needs to be physical against a swift-skating Gopher team that averages 3.66 goals per game, the fifth most in the country.

It is more difficult to play the body on the bigger ice surface, but Murphy said they still have to do so.

“Big ice sheet or small ice sheet, if we don’t finish our checks, they’ll be able to skate all night and that works to their advantage, especially here where they’ve played all year long,” Murphy said.

“We can’t give them a lot of chances,” said Shepheard. “They’re a very offensive team, and if we cough the puck up, they’re going to capitalize on our mistakes. We’ve got to minimize our mistakes and play a really solid defensive game.”

The Gophers will be without leading scorer Tyler Hirsch (11 goals, 33 assists) and WCHA All-Rookie Team defenseman Alex Goligoski (5 & 15). Hirsch has been sidelined for personal reasons, and Goligoski has a broken hand.

Maine, which will be without freshman RW Rob Bellamy (broken hand), has shown it can play defense in do-or-die games.

In the Bears’ last eight single-elimination games, involving both NCAA Tournament games and Hockey East semifinal and championship contests, Maine has surrendered 1.28 goals per game. But the Bears have averaged only 1.49 gpg.

“Typically, our playoff games have been low-scoring, defensive struggles,” said sophomore right wing Keith Johnson. “We’re fine playing in close games. We’re confident, especially with Jimmy [Howard] in net.”

In his last seven elimination games, Howard is 4-2 with a 1.25 goals-against average and a .961 save percentage.

“He’s a great goalie. We’ll need to get some traffic in front,” said Minnesota right wing Danny Irmen, whose 24 goals tie him for the team lead with linemate Ryan Potulny. They are tied for fifth in the country in goals.

“We’ve got to get to three [goals] because they’ll score some goals,” said sixth-year Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “We’ve got to play with the lead and get the crowd into the game.”

Maine sophomore left wing Mike Hamilton said it will be important for the Bears to “come out flying and get one early to settle them down a little bit.”

Howard is poised for the challenge.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “It’ll definitely be a great challenge. It’ll be a game I’ll remember the rest of my life: playing at Minnesota at Mariucci Arena in front of 10,000 fans.”

He said Minnesota’s “top guys pose a big problem for us. They have some of the best forwards in the nation here. We have to play very well defensively and stay out of the penalty box. Their power play has been saving them all year.”

Minnesota’s power play is ranked ninth in the country at a 21.6 percent success rate.

Maine has the nation’s third-best penalty killing percentage at 87.4 percent.

“Special teams are huge. They can make the difference between winning and losing,” said Irmen. “Our power play hasn’t been as good lately as it can be.”

Irmen is hoping that trend changes Saturday.

Another key factor is whether the Bears can generate enough offense to avoid another gut-wrenching one-goal loss like the NCAA championship game setback to Denver (1-0) last year and the loss to BC last weekend.

“We’ve got to use our speed to create turnovers and take them off their game. We’ve got to hit their defensemen all night long. We’ll be able to create turnovers in transition,” said Maine sophomore center Leveille. “We’ve been working a lot on our forecheck this week. It’s going to be important for the first and second men [into the offensive zone] to hit their men and take them out of the play.”