The Portland Pirates played the Manchester Monarchs Tuesday night as the American Hockey League ventured north.

It was the Pirates’ first visit to Orono.

Brian Petrovek, the managing owner and CEO of the Pirates, explained that the AHL has encouraged teams to look for different venues because they play 40 home games and they can be better served putting their footprint in other areas of their respective states.

That can attract new fans and, in so doing, extend the fan base. It’s a good idea and one that is long overdue. Forty games in one city is a lot, especially if it isn’t a major city.

The pro game is markedly different from the college game.

Players are from all over the world and they are all chasing a dream: playing in the world’s best league (NHL).

The pro game is much more structured and there is much more skill on display.

It’s much less helter-skelter than the college game.

In pro hockey, they are taught to economize movement and maintain positioning.

It is also taught in the college game, but there is more unpredictability and more mistakes, which makes it interesting.

There is more emotion in college hockey because there are less than half as many games. The importance of the games is magnified.

In the AHL, teams often play three games in three nights. That makes it virtually impossible to play with the same enthusiasm and vigor in the third game as the first.

There is much more travel in pro hockey and players have to find a purposeful off-ice regimen. They have a lot of spare time. They don’t have studies to worry about. Hockey is their job and that is their No. 1 priority.

But it is important to manage life properly off the ice, including nutritionally, to maximize performance on the ice.

And the margin for error isn’t very big.

A bad season, especially for a role player, could cost a player his livelihood.

The Pirates and the University of Maine Black Bears feature intriguing parallels.

The Black Bear program and the Pirates, then known as the Maine Mariners, both began in the 1977-78 season and both were instantly successful.

The Mariners, who were aligned with a first-class Philadelphia Flyers organization, won back-to-back Calder Cups in their first two seasons.

Maine made the ECAC Division II playoffs in its second season and the ECAC Division I playoffs in its fourth season and second year in Division I.

They were both in new facilities, the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland and Alfond Arena in Orono.

The Pirates and Black Bears have undergone a host of changes over the years, but they are still primary sources of winter entertainment in their respective areas.

They have fostered a remarkable growth in hockey across the state.

There were six high school teams when the Mariners/Pirates and Black Bears began and now there are 47 teams encompassing 55 high schools. There are eight co-op teams among the 47.

Girls varsity high school hockey will be added next year.

It is only appropriate that Tuesday’s game featured Gardiner’s 40-year-old Eric Weinrich, one of the former Black Bears who helped transform Maine into an elite program in the late 1980s, against Teddy Purcell, who helped lead Maine to the Frozen Four a year ago.

Larry Mahoney may be reached at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net or 990-8231.