It has been a tale of two seasons for University of Maine freshman goalie Scott Darling.
In the 2008 portion of the schedule, Darling had an 8-4-2 record, a 1.61 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage.
In 2009, he is 1-8-1 with a 4.27 GAA and a .842 save percentage.
The schedule over the second half of the season has been much more difficult as those teams have a combined record of 121-92-29 while the first-half teams are 154-148-47.
Darling said his confidence is fine, and his teammates are confident he will turn in a solid performance this weekend when the eighth-seeded Black Bears face top seed Boston University in their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series at Agganis Arena.
BU is the nation’s top-ranked team.
Darling had been sharing the goaltending with junior David Wilson, but Wilson suffered a groin pull last Tuesday and is doubtful for this weekend.
“He’ll bounce back, absolutely. You see the way he has played. The kid has a tremendous amount of talent,” said senior right wing Jeff Marshall. “The last couple of weekends, we haven’t given him any help in our own end. It’s inexcusable for us to play like that in front of a freshman goaltender.”
Senior center Chris Hahn said Darling has risen to the occasion in Maine’s biggest games. Darling made 24 saves in an early-season 2-1 win over nationally ranked Boston College and stopped 31 shots in shutting out New Hampshire, which was also nationally ranked, 1-0 on Feb. 7 in Manchester, N.H.
“He’s a confident guy. He has struggled a bit in the second half but, at the same time, I think that’s a result of our team defense just not doing a good job of clearing second shots and giving him a chance,” Hahn said.
“So I think if we do a good job in front of him, Scotty’s going to give us his best effort and I’m confident he’ll have a strong weekend,” Hahn added.
Darling said he isn’t dwelling on his second half.
“I’ve got to prepare. I can’t think about it,” said Darling. “In the first half, we were just having fun playing hockey. In the second half, we haven’t been doing that. We’ve got to get back to that.
“The playoffs are a new season. Anything can happen. We’ve just got to go out there and give it our best.”
He said he needs to make “a few more big saves” in every game and do a better job controlling his rebounds.
“I’ve got to try to sponge pucks better [into my body],” said the 6-foot-5 Darling.
BU will enter the series as the nation’s highest-scoring team (3.97 goals per game) with the top power-play percentage (24.3 percent).
Darling is looking forward to the challenge.
“It’ll be exciting. We’ve got to shut down their offense. They have a crazy amount of offense on that team. We’ve seen it this season,” said Darling.
Penalty-killing has been costly
One of the reasons behind Maine’s current eight-game winless streak (0-7-1), including a six-game losing streak, has been the penalty kill.
Maine had been ranked in the top 10 in the penalty kill for most of the season, but in the last eight games, the Bears have allowed 14 power-play goals in just 40 chances for a woeful 65 percent success rate.
What do the Bears have to do to straighten out the penalty kill as they prepare to face the nation’s best power play?
“Hard work,” said Marshall. “That’s the key. Hard work and being aware. BU has a lot of dangerous guys who can really hurt you. We have to be aware of where everybody is on the ice and make sure we’re taking away [passing and shooting] lanes and blocking a lot of shots.”
“Penalty-killing is a combination of things,” said Hahn. “We’ve been taking too many penalties. Guys get tired. We’ve gotten away from the focus we had in the first half.”
He said the difference between the best and worst penalty-killing teams is the best teams “do all the little things” necessary to kill a penalty.
“We were very strong in the first half, but we’ve gotten away from the little things in the second half,” added Hahn. “The biggest thing is to recognize when to pressure and when not to pressure. When you have a team on the run, if somebody is bobbling the puck or if they have their back turned to you, you’ve got jump on them. Everybody as a unit has to jump on them.”
Sophomore defenseman Jeff Dimmen said, “We’ve got to get back to blocking shots and keeping shots to the outside. We’ve got to protect the front of the net and clear rebounds and not let them get second shots.”
Turgeon is honorable mention
Genevieve Turgeon, who recently concluded her four-year career as the workhorse goaltender for the University of Maine women’s hockey team, was chosen as an All-Hockey East honorable mention.
The native of Lac Beauport, Quebec, led Hockey East with 975 saves and was fourth in the nation in that category.
Turgeon was 4-22-4 this season with a 3.60 goals-against average and .900 save percentage. She owns the school’s career records for saves (2,948) and games played (100) and she also set the single-season mark for saves this season.