Bishop responds for Bears

loading...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – It was the kind of goal goaltenders hate to give up.

Less than four minutes into Friday night’s NCAA Tournament game, on St. Cloud State’s second shot, Ben Bishop let a seemingly harmless shot from the left wing by Justin Fletcher slip through his pads.

“He kind of handcuffed me, put it right at my feet,” said Bishop, who hadn’t played in a month because of two groin injuries. “Once it went in, I kind of said ‘oh, no,’ but it was nice to get it off my back early, then settle down after that and concentrate.”

The University of Maine sophomore put it out of his mind, responding with a 33-save performance that carried the Black Bears to a 4-1 victory over St. Cloud State in a first-round game at Blue Cross Arena.

“The fact that he has not been in the net much over the last two months, to be able to recapture his form and recapture his concentration after that goal, which by his own explanation was a soft one, I think shows a lot of composure, a lot of focus,” said Black Bears coach Tim Whitehead.

UMaine had stumbled of late, losing four straight and six of its previous eight contests. The Bears failed to reach the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament.

The St. Cloud goal furthered those struggles, but only briefly.

“That’s not the start we were looking for,” said Bears senior Mike Lundin. “It was a little bit of a downer but it was early in the game and we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game.”

The Bears knew anything was possible, especially with Bishop back in goal.

“He brought us all the way to the Frozen Four last year, so that experience is huge,” said senior captain Michel Leveille. “Obviously, we’re more confident because he’s been through it. Ben’s a great player, so we needed him and he did a great job tonight.”

The 6-foot-7 Bishop seemed to gain confidence as the game progressed. The Bears gave him a big emotional lift shortly thereafter when Brent Shepheard scored on the power play and Billy Ryan found the back of the net 50 seconds later as UMaine snatched the momentum.

“It’s always a great feeling when they come down and score and your team comes right back and puts one in the net. We, fortunately, put two in the net,” Bishop said. “The guys weren’t going to let that first goal affect them, you could tell by the way they were playing.”

Bishop responded in kind. While he faced only nine shots in the period, Bishop made three saves on high-percentage chances during a St. Cloud power play that included 1:18 of 5-on-3 action.

He showed no apparent ill effects from the injuries, although he stretched extensively during TV timeouts in the second and third periods.

“I was just trying to stay loose,” Bishop said. “I don’t want to stand around and get stiff.

He expects to be ready to go for tonight’s game against Hockey East rival Massachusetts.

“I felt fine during the game, I feel great right now, so I’ll feel fine tomorrow,” he said.

Bishop, who hadn’t played since Feb. 24, faced nine shots again in the second period, during which the Huskies had a decided territorial edge. However, UMaine did a nice job of limiting close-range shots.

Perhaps the toughest chance of the period came with 5:23 left when a St. Cloud player moving away from the net to Bishop’s left flipped a sneaky backhander on goal. He made the initial save, then snuffed out the follow-up shot.

“The longer the game went, the sharper he got,” Whitehead said.

Bishop was at his best during the third period. Even with UMaine holding a comfortable three-goal cushion, he seemed to be completely focused on stopping the puck.

He made a couple of good saves on rushes in the first 87 seconds of the period, then thwarted a potential scoring chance by coming out and flipping the puck off the glass after a pass trickled behind the defense and into the slot.

“The more shots I had, the more and more I got into the game and back in the rhythm,” Bishop said. “Toward the end, they had quite a few chances but I felt fine, I felt relaxed. I wasn’t too worried.”

UMaine wound up killing off all nine of St. Cloud’s power plays, including four in the pivotal third period.

At the 13:50 mark, Bishop made a shoulder save off a shot from low in the right circle. He came back 48 seconds later to snuff out a slapshot from high in the left circle.

“He made big saves when he needed to, that’s what good goalies do,” said St. Cloud’s Andrew Gordon.

Perhaps St. Cloud’s best chance came at the 11:02 mark when Aaron Brocklehurst got open in front and took a feed from behind the net, only to have Bishop block it with his body.

“When he was tested in the man-short situations later in the game, he was at the top of his game, so it worked out very well,” Whitehead said.