ALBANY, N.Y. – It was the No. 1 question on every University of Maine hockey fan’s mind Saturday: Who will get the start in goal?

Head coach Tim Whitehead and his coaching staff provided the answer around 5:30 p.m. when sophomore Jimmy Howard took the ice for pregame warmups.

“We finalized that this morning and as coaches, we talked about it, but we knew either way we’d have an opportunity to win with Frank [Doyle] or Jimmy,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead on Friday had lifted Howard from a game for the first time all season. He replaced him with senior Frank Doyle after the second period ended with Harvard University holding a 4-1 lead. Howard made 29 saves on 33 shots and allowed his first even-strength goal in 12 games.

“Our gut feeling was Jimmy has been playing at such an elite level, we figured that would be our best move and give our team the best opportunity,” he added. “In the end we just decided to trust our gut feeling and go with Jimmy and I am just so proud of how he played. He bounced back very, very strong.”

Howard justified his coaches’ gut feelings by stopping 36 of 37 shots and keeping the Wisconsin Badgers off the scoreboard for the final 25 minutes, 49 seconds of Saturday’s NCAA East Regional final.

“The difference tonight was we protected him,” said Whitehead.

“I just tried to block what happened out, but to be quite honest, I thought I played pretty well [Friday] night, but they got some lucky bounces,” Howard said. “One went off the guy’s shin pad and up over my shoulder.”

Still, Howard said he understood his coach’s decision.

“We needed a jump. We needed to switch up,” Howard said. “It’s like in baseball when the guys are really hitting a pitcher and you switch them up to throw them a curve. And it really worked last night.”

Doyle came in to save all seven shots he faced and Maine staged a miraculous rally to win 5-4.

“I was so thrilled when he went in there and the guys responded, played really well in front of him, and we won the game,” said Howard, who counts Doyle as a good friend.

Doyle said the goalies’ competitive situation, which is so intense neither is quite sure who will get the start from game to game, has helped rather than hurt their friendship.

“Oh, no question,” Doyle said. “We’re really supportive of each other and it’s great watching him. I get more amazed every time I watch him, and I think we’ve both learned from each other.”

Maine’s goaltending duo also amazes their teammates and coaches.

“They do. They’re very humble and very hardworking,” said Whitehead. “They compete as hard or harder than any of our players in practice.”