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The University of Maine’s hockey team is like a cat with nine lives.
The Black Bears, losers of four straight to UMass, and six of eight, received their ninth and final life Sunday when they garnered the program’s ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.
Michigan, with 17 straight appearances, is the only team with a longer active streak.
The 21-14-2 Black Bears squandered several chances to sew up a berth but received the third seed for the East Regional in Rochester, N.Y. and will take on second seed St. Cloud State, 22-10-7, at 6 p.m. Friday.
Maine isn’t the only team to struggle down the stretch.
St. Cloud State (Minn.), which finished second in the WCHA’s regular season standings, has lost two straight and is 2-4-1 in its last seven.
Top seed Clarkson, 24-8-5 and the ECAC Hockey League tourney champ, will face off against first-time NCAA participant UMass, 20-12-5 and the fourth seed, in the 2:30 p.m. opener.
Friday’s winners will meet Saturday at 6 p.m. for a berth in the Frozen Four in St. Louis.
Maine appeared to be in deep trouble after being swept by UMass in the Hockey East quarterfinals.
But the Bears, 13-14-1 after an 8-0-1 start, benefited from the fact there weren’t any upsets in the four major conference tournaments. And Maine’s two October wins at North Dakota and another over Minnesota at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., proved to be extremely valuable in the PairWise Rankings that are used to set the tourney field.
Important bonus points are awarded for non-conference road wins although Minnesota was a neutral ice victory.
“We’re just excited to get the opportunity,” said junior defenseman Bret Tyler. “A couple of weeks ago, I would said you were crazy if you thought we were getting into the tournament. But getting a three seed and playing St. Cloud, I mean, we’re just looking forward to it.”
“This is a huge load off everybody’s chest,” said sophomore goalie Ben Bishop, who is expected to play Friday after missing four games with a groin pull. “Now we can just focus on the game.”
Despite their second-half collapse, the consensus among the Maine players and coach Tim Whitehead is that they deserve to be in the tournament.
“Some people say it’s how you finish [that should count more]. But you have to look at the full season. What we did early on obviously helped us,” senior left wing Josh Soares said.
“Sure [we belong],” said Whitehead emphatically. “That’s why they picked us. We built up a reservoir of wins and those were not imposters. If not for injuries to key players, I don’t think we would have gone 2-6 down the stretch.”
Whitehead noted that the NCAA rightfully eliminated the stretch-run record as one of the criteria several years ago.
“They didn’t want to put too much weight on one particular part of the season. They didn’t want an injury to dictate an entire season,” said Whitehead.
“In some ways, I feel we belong in it,” said senior center Mike Hamilton. “Obviously, the way the season ended, some people think we don’t belong. We’ve been inconsistent. But when we’ve been on, we’ve beaten some good teams. We’re fortunate to have another shot. We want to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Maine senior center and captain Michel Leveille said they’re in and that’s all that counts.
“No matter what we’ve done so far, it’s a new season now. We’ve just got to make the most of it,” said Leveille.
They also said having Bishop back will give them a big boost.
“[Backup Dave Wilson] definitely played well for us and kept us in games. But [Bishop] has more experience, he’s 6-foot-7 and he’s a great athlete. He can steal a game for us like he did earlier in the year,” said senior defenseman Mike Lundin. “We might need him to do that. Hopefully, he’s up to the challenge.”
“And with his ability to shoot the puck, it might give our defensemen more time and space,” said Soares.
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