MILWAUKEE – He has a shaved head these days, but former University of Maine Hobey Baker Award finalist Jim Montgomery looks like he could still lace on the skates and fill up a scoresheet.

Montgomery, who retired from pro hockey last year, spent this season as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Notre Dame working under Jeff Jackson, the former Lake Superior State coach and U.S. National Team Development Program coach and senior director.

Ironically, it was Montgomery’s third-period hat trick that rallied Maine from a 4-2 deficit to a 5-4 win over Jackson’s Lakers in the 1993 NCAA title game in Milwaukee.

“We talked about that,” said a grinning Montgomery, who was watching the Black Bears in their 5-2 national semifinal loss to Wisconsin Thursday night while also renewing acquaintances with several Maine fans who cheered him on during his days in Orono.

“It’s been fun,” said Montgomery, who will always have fond memories of his time in Orono and the way the community supported and embraced the hockey team.

Montgomery will head to the American Hockey Coaches Association meetings in Florida later this month seeking a job as a full-time Division I assistant.

He wanted to get a taste of coaching before he decided to embark upon a coaching career, and he said working with Jackson was a tremendous experience and validated his desire to coach.

“Jeff is a lot like Shawn [late former Maine coach Shawn Walsh],” said Montgomery. “Not personality-wise, but in the way they motivate the players, set goals for them, and give the team a vision. He has one of the most intelligent hockey minds I’ve ever been around. Day in and day out, he sees the game in six different levels like Shawn did.”

The 36-year-old Montgomery said it was also a satisfying year in that “we went from five wins last year to 13 this year.”

Montgomery, Maine’s all-time leading scorer with 301 points (103 goals, 198 assists) in 170 games, had a lengthy pro hockey career that included 122 NHL games for five teams. He was a player-coach for Missouri in the United Hockey League last year, but he realized that his body couldn’t take the pounding any more.

He said he will never forget the 1993 Frozen Four.

“I remember it like yesterday. It was one of the greatest moments of my life,” said Montgomery.

He reminisced about it with former Maine teammate and 1993 Hobey Baker Award winner Paul Kariya while having dinner with him in Chicago six weeks ago.

Kariya is having a great year with the Nashville Predators of the NHL.

“He loves it there,” said Montgomery. “He was a free agent and when he decided to sign with Nashville, he analyzed it very much the same way he did when he decided to go to Maine.”

Montgomery has followed the progress of his alma mater and praised head coach Tim Whitehead for doing a “tremendous job” after taking over the job when Walsh died of complications from kidney cancer on Sept. 24, 2001.

Leeman loves her job

Caribou native Kellie Leeman was on hand at the Frozen Four in her role in the management of promotion and events for the NCAA.

Leeman, who played soccer for the women’s team at the University of Maine, said her job entails drumming up interest and “assisting” in the marketing of the 88 NCAA championship sites for the various sports in Divisions I, II, and III.

There are 23 sports.

“We try to get people in the local community to come out to the championships,” explained Leeman.

She said the hope is that once these fans see the campus where the championships are being held, they will develop an interest in that school’s program and begin attending more events throughout the year.