The University of Maine women’s ice hockey and basketball teams will participate in Breast Cancer Awareness Week on Saturday.

The Hockey East Skating Strides program to benefit breast cancer awareness will be featured on Saturday evening in Orono when the University of Maine women’s hockey team entertains Boston College.

Game time is 7 p.m.

The Bangor Savings Bank Foundation has underwritten a set of alternate jerseys for the game while, simultaneously, the jerseys will be available for silent auction during the game. Selected jerseys will also be available through the GoBlackBears.com website.

Lichterman said 12 jerseys will be available via silent auction during the game and eight will be available online.

In addition, Hockey East and the company TPS will be providing warm-up jerseys for the two teams and team autographed versions of the jerseys as well as hockey sticks will be available via auction. The goalies will use pink goalsticks.

Fans will also be asked to make donations at the game. Maine does not charge admission to women’s hockey games.

Maine coach Dan Lichterman said he “bounced around the idea” of having his team wear the special jerseys during a game based on his work on a similar fund-raising effort at Minnesota State-Mankato, where he was an assistant last year. The idea wound up landing in the laps of officials at Bangor Savings Bank and they liked the idea and sponsored the jerseys, he said.

“These are very nice jerseys, great quality jerseys. And this is another way to up the ante. Rather than getting a dollar here and a dollar there, this is more of a big-ticket item that can bring in more money to the cause,” said Lichterman. “And you won’t find a better cause than this one. It has affected so many women [and their friends and families].”

He also stressed that the pink, which is the color portrayed to represent the cause, will be subtly added to the jersey.

“Most of those pink breast cancer awareness jerseys arein-your-face pink,” said Lichterman. “Our pink will be real subtle, not hot pink. We will be wearing the light blue jerseys like the men’s team occasionally wears but the script ‘Maine’ across the front of the jersey and the numbers will be pink.”

He also said the jersey has met with the approval of his players.

“They like them,” he said.

The women’s basketball team will host Stony Brook on noon Saturday as part of the ‘Think Pink’ Week observance run by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).

The Black Bear players will be wearing pink shooting shirts and pink shoelaces and fans are encouraged to wear pink, also.

For those fans without pink, the Bear Necessities souvenir store will be offering 20 percent off all pink items in the store that day.

Representative from Caring Connections will be on hand to distribute information and resources regarding breast cancer awareness.

Maine is one of over 750 women’s basketball teams across the country participating in ‘Think Pink’ week.

Husson College in Bangor and St. Joseph’s College in Standish participated in it earlier this week.

Black Bear women battling mono

Lichterman’s Black Bears have had an unusual season, health-wise.

Four of his players have contracted mononucleosis and three are still battling the illness.

He had just 13 skaters for Friday’s 3-1 loss at Northeastern and 14 for Saturday’s 4-2 triumph over the Huskies. Teams usually dress 18 skaters along with two goalies.

“The kids are in such close proximity to each other all the time. And, at this time of the season, everyone is sick and everyone is hurt. It’s no different anywhere around the country. You can’t think about it, you just have to play through it. You have to persevere. It’s part of learning,” said Lichterman. “We have such a young team and a lot of our players haven’t been through the battles before.”

Wingers Kaitlin Zeek and Robyn Law and center Jenna Ouellette have been sidelined with mono while defenseman Jenna Cowan has since returned after missing a significant chunk of the season with it.

Zeek had been out since the holiday break but began practicing Tuesday. Law and Ouellette have missed the last six games. Ouellette also returned to the practice ice on Tuesday.

Law is still sidelined and Lichterman doesn’t know when she will return.

If she is able to return for this weekend’s (Saturday night-Sunday afternoon) series against visiting Boston College, Lichterman could have his full complement of players for the first time in a long time.

Lichterman said if Law does return, she will be used sparingly.

His Black Bears are 3-22-3 overall, 2-10-3 in Hockey East, but he said they are “playing pretty well. There have been little things [lapses] here and there. A lot of it is mental.

“They’re playing hard from the drop of the puck to the final buzzer and that’s all I can ask.”