University of Maine men’s hockey coach Tim Whitehead has confirmed speculation that goalie Scott Darling won’t return next season, leaving the goaltending in the hands of sophomore Shawn Sirman, who appeared in just eight games last season, and freshmen Dan Sullivan and Martin Ouellette.
Darling appeared to be the latest in a long line of outstanding goaltenders at Maine, but his career was short-circuited by second-half woes each season and three suspensions, including a season-ending ban-ishment right before the Hockey East quarterfinals this past season.
“We agreed that it was best for the team and best for Scott that he move on to pro hockey next season,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “This is a new beginning for Scott and I’m excited for him. I’m confident he can make that transition and do well.”
Darling was a sixth-round draft choice of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes (153rd overall) in 2007.
Whitehead wouldn’t say whether Darling’s suspension before the HE quarterfinal se-ries against UMass Lowell was alcohol-related, but he did say, “We set up some guidelines for him in order for him to return and he wasn’t able to meet them.”
He admitted that Darling’s suspension before the quarter finals “was a distraction for our team.”
“But, having said that, we never used that as an excuse. And we were very willing to give Scott every opportunity possible to recapture his spot on the team [for next season],” the Maine coach said. “I care about Scott and his family and it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to work things out.”
The 21-year-old Darling preferred not to comment on the suspension and the guidelines established by Whitehead but said they agreed to part ways earlier this spring.
“Coach and I talked about it. I always want to keep mov-ing up and we agreed that this would be better for me,” said Darling. “There aren’t any hard feelings. Without coach Whitehead, I wouldn’t have been able to play college hockey at such a high level and get a good education in my two years. I’m real happy about that.”
In his two seasons, the 6-foot-6 Darling compiled a 25-20-6 record, a 2.92 goals-against average and an .895 save percent-age. He had three shutouts and showed the potential of past great Maine goalies such as longtime NHLers Garth Snow and Mike Dunham and current NHL Calder Trophy finalist (Rookie of the Year) Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings.
Darling was 15-6-3 this past season with a 3.10 GAA and an .895 save percentage. He didn’t have a shutout this season.
He got off to a great start in his freshman season with an 8-4-2 record, a 1.61 GAA and a .936 save percentage in his first 14 games. But he went just 2-10-1 the rest of the way.
Darling was 9-3-1 with a 2.47 GAA and a .912 save per-centage entering the Christmas break this season before going 6-3-2 down the stretch.
“I was happy with the way I played this season. I thought I had a good year, although there was that rough spot at the end,” said Darling, who added that watching his teammates play in the Hockey East semifinals and final at TD Bank Garden in Boston “were the hardest two games I’ve ever watched in my life.”
“We’re obviously sad to see Scott leave,” said Maine defenseman and assistant cap-tain Jeff Dimmen. “He was a great teammate and a great person. We have confidence he’ll do well where he ends up.”
Phoenix’s American Hockey League affiliate is in San Antonio and its ECHL franchise is in Las Vegas.
“I’m very, very excited to begin my pro career,” said Dar-ling.
“I loved the two years I spent at Maine. I loved the guys on the team. They were great teammates. I’ll miss them, I’ll miss the people and the good friends I made and I’ll miss playing at the Alfond Arena,” said Darling, a mass communi-cations major with a minor in child development who intends to continue working toward his degree by taking classes online.
Whitehead said the battle for the goaltending job will be wide open.
“Shawn has the most ex-perience coming in. Last year didn’t go as well for him as he hoped it would. But he didn’t realize that he wasn’t in the shape he needed to be in to compete at an elite level. We’ve seen that before. Josh Soares and Jimmy Howard are good examples,” said Whitehead.
“Shawn will be much more prepared this season. But we also feel Dan Sullivan and Martin Ouellette are going to do well.”
He also said with 11 of Maine’s top 12 scorers and all of its defensemen returning, whoever mans the pipes should be well protected.
“We aren’t going to need elite goaltending to be success-ful. But we will need solid goal-tending performances on a consistent basis,” said Whitehead.
“We should be a lot more responsible, defensively,” said Dimmen. “That will take pressure off our goaltenders and allow them to succeed.”
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