ORONO — University of Maine senior center Robby Dee would love to cap his college career with a trip to St. Paul, Minn., for the Frozen Four this season. He grew up in nearby Plymouth, Minn.
But you won’t catch him daydreaming about it these days.
“That’s a long ways away. I’m just taking things game-by-game,” said Dee.
So far, Dee has played an integral role in leading the Black Bears to a 4-1-3 start and a No. 5 national ranking entering this weekend’s home series against coach Greg Cronin’s Northeastern University Huskies.
He’s third on the team in scoring with 12 points on five goals and seven assists and has been solid defensively.
“He has become an elite player and he keeps getting better,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “He tested out as our fastest skater, he’s physical, he’s great at the net front at both ends of the ice and he’s very effective on loose pucks. He plays in all situations and he’s strong on faceoffs.”
Dee has won over 64 percent of his faceoffs.
“He has been playing unbelievably for us,” said senior defenseman and assistant captain Jeff Dimmen. “He gets into those high-traffic areas where not many people like to go and gets those goals. He is doing everything for us.”
In addition to playing a regular shift and seeing power-play duty, Dee has evolved into a reliable penalty killer.
“I put in a lot of hard work in the off-season and I’ve had some great linemates. I focused on my (faceoff) draws and on my overall defensive play. I struggled with draws last year,” said Dee who had to adapt to playing center after being a winger for all of his career.
“I wanted (Whitehead) to have confidence in me (defensively) so he’ll put me out there, especially on the penalty-kill. I want to do everything I can to help the team,” Dee said.
He noted that winning faceoffs is one of the keys to a successful penalty kill. It is also important in generating offense.
Dee, a former Minnesota high school goal-scoring leader (49) when he was a linemate of the Boston Bruins’ Blake Wheeler, has already had five multiple-point games, one more than he had in 33 games a year ago.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Dee credits his offensive success to the strength he has acquired through his workouts and a bump in his speed.
“If you’re bigger than the other guy, he can’t push you out of (the net front). A lot of it is speed, too. You need to be able to skate past guys and get there,” said Dee. “A lot of goals happen around the net so if you can find your way in there, you’ll score a lot of goals.”
He has learned how to get into shooting lanes.
“You have to get into position to get your shot off quickly to catch a goalie off-guard,” said Dee. “If you take that extra second to set up and try to take the perfect shot, the goalie will get in position.”
Maine freshman goalie Dan Sullivan said Dee is “very difficult to face. He’s always in the right spot at the right time and he has a quick release on his shot. It’s very hard, very accurate, very quick and very hard to stop.”