Black Bears eye return to UMass Maine on road for HE quarterfinals

AMHERST, Mass. – University of Maine assistant captain Josh Soares is counting the hours until the Black Bears return to Amherst, Mass., for their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series with the Minutemen beginning Friday night at the Mullins Center.

It was a muffed clearout by the senior left wing that landed directly on the stick of UMass’ Matt Anderson, who snapped the puck over backup goalie Dave Wilson’s glove 7:53 into the third period to break a 2-2 tie and give the Minutemen the lead for good in their 5-3 triumph.

The win sewed up fourth place for UMass and relegated Maine to fifth place.

As it turned out, with UMass Lowell beating and tying fourth-place contender Vermont over the weekend, Maine needed just one win in the series to claim fourth but the Bears were swept by UMass for the first time. It was the seventh time Maine had visited UMass for a two-game series.

The Bears have lost their last five Hockey East road games.

The teams currently are tied for 12th in the PairWise Rankings, so the loser of their series probably would be eliminated from NCAA Tournament contention. Maine is shooting for its ninth straight NCAA tourney berth.

In the other Hockey East quarterfinal series, which all start Thursday, No. 1 New Hampshire (23-9-2 overall, 18-7-2 in Hockey East) will entertain No. 8 Providence (10-21-3, 9-15-3); No. 2 Boston College (22-11-1, 18-8-1) will host No. 7 Northeastern (13-16-5, 9-13-5) and No. 3 Boston University (18-7-9, 13-6-8) will face No. 6 Vermont (17-14-5, 12-10-5).

Maine’s fifth-place finish is its worst since being the sixth seed in the 1997-98 season. Maine went on to sweep No. 3 New Hampshire that season and reached the Hockey East final where it lost to Boston College 3-2.

“I’m already chomping at the bit to get back here,” said Soares. “I know it’s a long trip and what not. But I just want to get back out there and play. I’m really looking forward to the challenge. I want to avenge these losses.

“We’ve got to compete every night. If we play the way we did tonight, we can do some damage. But we can’t make the mistakes we made.”

Maine senior defenseman and assistant captain Mike Lundin said, “Obviously this isn’t what we wanted. But we know what’s in store for us. We know what it’s like to play them in their home rink. We got a bit of confidence the way we played [Saturday night] even though we were disappointed in the result.

“We know we can outplay every team if we put our minds to it. We need to get focused and play our best game.”

Maine senior center and captain Michel Leveille said he is fine with returning to Amherst.

“We know the ice now and we know the team we have to play. So we can definitely adjust. It’s just a matter of hard work and everybody needs to step it up,” he said. “We’ll need to refocus and have a strong week of practice. We don’t have school this week so there’s no worries about anything else except hockey.”

The Minutemen also know what to expect.

“It’ll be a battle. The games will be close. I don’t see any blowouts coming,” said UMass senior center-defenseman Mark Matheson. “It’ll be pretty much the same two games you just saw here. People will be going at it, tempers are going to start to flare. People are going to start to get edgy. It’s going to be good.”