Bears remained confident throughout season Maine to rest up before preparing for Badgers

The University of Maine men’s hockey team will return to the ice Wednesday after a couple of days off in the wake of their upset wins over Harvard (6-1) and Michigan State (5-4) at the East Regional in Albany, N.Y., that has earned the program a 10th Frozen Four appearance and third in five years.

“We knew we could do something special this year,” said Maine junior center Michel Leveille. “It’s a long season. You go through some ups and downs. But we never gave up and I’m glad we’re going to the Frozen Four.”

Maine is now 5-0 at the Pepsi Arena in Albany in NCAA tourney play.

Maine, 28-11-2, will take on Wisconsin, 28-10-3, in the 8 p.m. semifinal April 6 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Boston College, 25-12-3, and North Dakota, 29-15-1, will meet in the 3 p.m. opener. The championship game will be April 8 at 7 p.m.

A 5-2 victory over Providence College on Jan. 21 snapped a three-game losing streak and triggered Maine’s current 14-2-2 stretch. The Black Bears are 10-1-2 in their last 13.

Junior left wing Josh Soares said when the Bears got off to an 8-1 start, “we felt we were going to be in this situation.”

“We had that tough stretch in the middle of the season, but we never gave up, we never stopped believing that, and the coaching staff never let us stop believing that. We came out hard and we deserve it. We’ve played some great hockey down the stretch. We’re playing great hockey right now and that’s the main thing,” added Soares.

Maine coach Tim Whitehead said Maine’s 4-1 loss to Boston College in the Hockey East semifinals served as a valuable wakeup call.

“It was a good opportunity for us to refocus on why we had played so well down the stretch,” said Whitehead. “We had some good edge to our game [in the NCAA Tournament] as well as determination.”

Their weaknesses in the BC game were their inability to get to the net front and impede the vision of talented BC goalie Cory Schneider, their neutral-zone play, and their transition from offense to defense which wasn’t good and allowed the Eagles to generate odd-man rushes.

“We made progress in all three areas,” said Whitehead.

Maine’s ability to drive the opposing net front helped produce nine goals in the victories over Harvard and Michigan State. The two others were empty-netters.

John Hopson had two tip-in goals against Michigan State and the Bears also had a net-front presence on a point shot by Matt Duffy that deflected in off a Spartan defenseman.

“Tip-ins are tough on a goalie,” said MSU left wing and captain Drew Miller. “They don’t know where they’re going. Sometimes the guy [deflecting the puck] doesn’t know where it’s going. Those are good plays by them.”

Michigan State had allowed only 1.7 goals per game in the 2006 portion of its schedule.

Maine was also able to absorb the loss of fourth-leading scorer Derek Damon against Harvard. Damon was serving a one-game suspension for violating the Student-Athlete Code of Conduct for missing classes.

Chris Hahn filled in and had an assist.

“I was very proud of Chris Hahn and our whole team for being able to step up to the plate without a key player on short notice. Our team has been that way all year. We’ve had players step in at key moments and contribute to the team,” said Whitehead. “And Derek Damon was fabulous on Sunday.”

Wisconsin, ranked second in the last national poll, will be a stiff challenge, especially in front of a partisan Wisconsin crowd.

But Maine is 19-7 in its last 26 NCAA Tournament games. Whitehead pointed out it will be the fifth straight year Maine will play somebody in its opponent’s backyard in the NCAA Tournament (Minnesota twice, Boston College, and Michigan).

“I like how we’ve competed in all the games, especially in tough localities,” said Whitehead. “They’re a big, physical team that plays well below the [faceoff] dots [in the offensive zone]. They’re good on special teams like ourselves, and their goalie, Brian Elliott, is arguably the top goalie in the country.”

“It’ll be exciting. This is an opportunity for us to do something special and we’re looking forward to the challenge,” added Whitehead.