ANN ARBOR, Mich. – University of Maine hockey coach Tim Whitehead knew his difficult decision was the right one before the puck had even been dropped for the opening faceoff of Saturday’s NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal.

Each of the 6,798 fans jammed into the University of Michigan’s Yost Ice Arena and the thousands more listening to the game on radio or watching it on television knew it for sure after the Wolverines’ 2-1 victory in a pulse-pounding, neck hair-stiffening thriller.

There was no scarcity of question marks surrounding the Black Bears as they skated into Saturday’s game on the Wolverines’ home ice. Chief among the questions preceding those question marks was which goaltender Whitehead would start in the game: sophomore Frank Doyle or freshman Jimmy Howard, who started the last three playoff games and 20 of the 21 games he’s played this year.

Whitehead knew the answer Friday afternoon, but he was shrouding it in secrecy and guarding it like it was a piece of alien technology at Area 51.

“I told him last night at dinner after practice. Normally I tell them before practice. We obviously wanted to keep it close to the vest, particularly since Michigan knows Jimmy real well since he played out here and played with some of their players,” Whitehead said.

“We had the feeling they thought he was playing and we wanted it to stay that way, so once we decided on Frank, we waited to tell them,” Whitehead added. “They didn’t know Frank as well and that was a factor for us. They are different and since we didn’t feel we had many cards to play, we wanted to play that one.”

It came up as an ace. Doyle turned in one of his best efforts of the season and both goalies took the news as well as the coaches hoped.

“He let us know in front of the whole team. Jimmy just told me to go get them and was very supportive,” said Doyle. “I found out last night [Friday] that I was going, so I just wanted to come in today and play with a lot of heart and emotion and give these guys a chance to win.”

He did better than that.

Heck, judging from the twisting, back-lunging, sprawling and diving saves he made – saves during which he used virtually every part of his body to deflect, divert, obstruct, redirect, catch, or simply stop the puck from going into his net – Doyle’s performance was more of a “Yoda-man” effort. Even if he wasn’t using “the force” that the wise, impish Jedi master taught Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to use, it was something very close to it.

The Wolverines attempted 42 shots and Doyle stopped all of Michigan’s 19 shots on goal in the first two periods.

That didn’t surprise Whitehead because he also knew one other thing before anyone else.

“I was very proud of Frank. I could tell right away in the warmups he was ready to go,” Whitehead said.

That he was. Of Michigan’s 20 grade-A scoring opportunities, Doyle foiled 11 of them and kept both his goals-against average and save percentages exactly the same at 2.14 and .915, respectively.

“The first shot they had, he came in on a partial break,” Doyle said. “I got up to block him and got the puck. I just needed one save like that to get me going.”

Both of Michigan’s goals came off scrambles in front of the net in which Doyle made the initial save only to have the puck take a fortuitous bounce to a player wearing a maize-and-blue jersey. That player’s identity with 1:31 left in the game was senior center Jed Ortmeyer.

“It was a shot from the right side and there was somebody in front, and it just bounced right to him,” Doyle said.

It may not serve to dull the pain of the loss, but in terms of numbers, Doyle has far more highlight-reel saves than Michigan goals to remember.

There was the drop-down save he made off a Michigan breakout just 78 seconds into the game; the snapping glove save he made off a slap shot from the left circle with just over six minutes left in the second; the diving stop of a backhanded slap shot from the right circle on a Michigan 3-on-1 just 85 seconds later; and the back-to-back saves he made with almost 21/2 minutes left in the game.

Doyle made a sprawling save on which he somehow deflected the puck off the toe of his skate and away from the net, only to have to make another save off his pad and drop down to cover the puck.

“A few times this year, I got caught too deep in my net, so I just tried to focus on getting out as much as I could and cutting down the angle,” said Doyle, who finished with 25 saves on 27 shots.

Unfortunately for Maine fans, Doyle wasn’t the only goalie having a great game as Michigan freshman Al Montoya played what Whitehead called “the best game we’ve seen out of him” and turned aside 34 of Maine’s 35 shots.

“If you’re a fan of goalies, you certainly enjoyed this one because I thought both guys were just fantastic,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson.

So was the game.