ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s hockey team exceeded expectations.
Thanks to the determination and leadership of the six-member senior class and dramatic improvement in a number of players, the Black Bears overcame a 3-6-1 start to go 20-8-2 the rest of the way and earn their first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2006-2007 season.
An eight-man junior class will become the senior class next season and will look to build on this season’s accomplishments and go deeper into the NCAA Tournament.
Maine was ousted by defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth 5-2 in their Northeast Regional Tournament game Saturday night.
“Our six seniors put us back on the map. They put Maine hockey where it is supposed to be and we’re going to build off it next year,” said junior right wing Matt Mangene.
“The seniors really planted a seed for us this year,” said sophomore goalie Dan Sullivan. “It was an honor to play with all of our seniors. They were great men on and off the ice. They were role models. I think we have a great group of juniors who are going to be very hungry [as seniors] next season.
“I believe we can get back to the NCAA Tournament. We lost a ton of extremely skilled guys last year [and we made it],” added Sullivan.
Maine went 6-4 against rivals Boston College, Boston University and New Hampshire after going 7-26-6 against them the previous 39 games.
The Black Bears lost players who combined for 51 goals and 158 points a year ago.
They will lose players who collaborated for 46 goals and 159 points this season.
But the Black Bears had a little more scoring balance this season and they will return players who scored 87 goals and notched 125 assists, including seven of the 10 players who logged regular minutes on the nation’s second best power play (26.7 percent).
Hobey Baker Award finalist Spencer Abbott, the nation’s leading scorer (21 goals, 41 assists), and linemate Brian Flynn (18 and 30), were both Hockey East first-team selections and the third member of their line, junior Joey Diamond (25 and 22) was a second-team pick.
“I really think they’ll be back in the NCAA Tournament next year,” predicted outgoing senior defenseman and co-captain Will O’Neill. “It’ll be a different type of team because Abbott and Flynn are dynamic. They may not score as many goals but they won’t give up much because of how good [Sullivan] has become and because of the defense corps.
“Nick Pryor has really elevated his game; Mark Nemec, Mike Cornell and Brice O’Connor logged huge minutes and Jake Rutt is going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
“We’ve got a lot to look forward to,” said coach Tim Whitehead who feels next year’s seniors can match the “remarkable leadership” of this year’s seniors.
“If you look at our junior class, Mangene might be the most improved player in the country. You look at Joey Diamond, Pryor, Nemec, Cornell, [Kyle] Beattie, [Adam] Shemansky and Klas [Leidermark] and all of those guys have elevated their games. That’s where the leadership will come from,” said Whitehead.
Goaltending had been a question mark for four years but it should be a strength next year thanks to Sullivan’s dramatic improvement.
He may not have finished in the top 35 in the country in goals-against average (2.59, 36th) or save percentage (.909, 46th) but, more importantly, he had the 11th best winning percentage (22-11-3, .653).
Sullivan, who started the last 32 games, needs to tweak his glove, rebound control and recovery after the initial save. He also intends to work on his puck-handling.
Sophomore Martin Ouellette (1-3, 3.42, .871) became the forgotten man but he must continue his development and play more under control. He has talent and has to be ready in case Sullivan gets hurt or falters.
Incoming freshman Matt Morris has a lot of potential and is coming from former Black Bear All-American and captain Jim Montgomery’s Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League. He is 15-13-2 with a 2.62 GAA and a .893 save percentage this season.
O’Neill and shutdown defensive defenseman Ryan Hegarty (2 and 12) will depart but Nemec (0 and 5) emerged as a rock-steady defenseman; Cornell (1 and 7) is a strong, physical defenseman who needs to get a little better at handling the puck and Pryor (2 and 11), O’Connor (3 and 6) and Rutt (0 and 4 in 13 games) have good offensive instincts and need to continue to develop their defensive zone play.
Redshirt Billy Norman has one-man breakout capabilities with his speed and incoming freshman Ben Hutton (11 and 32 for two Ontario junior teams) is highly skilled to go with his 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame.
Maine has four returnees who scored at least 11 goals in Diamond, Mangene (16 and 18), Shemansky (11 and 10) and Mark Anthoine (12 and 7). Diamond and Anthoine share the national lead in power play-goals with 11 each.
Beattie (6 and 21) also had a breakthrough season.
Freshmen John Parker (3 and 4), a speedster like Mangene, and Stu Higgins (3 and 2) earned lots of ice time and that should help them become productive secondary scorers along with highly skilled Connor Leen (1 and 0). Junior Leidermark (2 and 1), sophomore Jon Swavely (1 and 6) and freshman Andrew Cerretani (1 and 0) should continue to develop as useful role players.
The list of incoming forwards is highlighted by Ryan Lomberg, who has 21 and 14 in 48 games for Muskegon in the United States Hockey League, Devin Shore (29 and 29 in 48 games for Whitby in the Ontario Junior Hockey League) and Will Merchant (25 and 27 in 31 games for Eagan (Minn.) High School.
The penalty killing (79.2 percent, 48th in the country) has to improve and it should.
For all the fans who wrote off Maine hockey back in early December and post some of the vitriol on other Maine hockey articles here, read this article a few times and be a supportive fan.
Wanting a coaching change isn’t unsupportive. We all still buy the tickets and root like hell for the team and yell all game long. We just want a coaching change. The players were always supported and cheered.
really???? Well I am sure for players who read these posts all year long, it would be hard for them to know who was rooting like hell for them!!
other than maybe a couple people the players were never bashed…
Great article to close an excellent season by the Black Bears. Yes, everyone would have loved a happier ending, but no one can argue that it was a successful season on multiple levels. It takes a tremendous team just to reach the NCAAs, and everyone involved with the team should be very proud of their accomplishments.
Now the expectation is back where it should be. It will be a dissapointing season if they don’t win an NCAA game. In fact, every season that this does not occur it will be considered a dissapointing season from now on.
This program needs to change their mindset. Getting there just isn’t good enough for a program who was once considered tops in the nation. Whitehead has only collected 1 trophy in the past 8 yrs, and that was way back in 2004 when they won the HE tourney.
What have you done for me lately? :)
I think that even the BC players would probably agree with me on this one, and that is that UMO deserves a piece of the National Championship trophy they are about to receive because the Eagles have reeled off 17 straight wins since their embarrassing sweep to UMO back in Jan.
If not for that sweep and the players meeting held immediately after, I’m not so certain this team would have collected the HE regular season or HE tourney trophy to be honest.
Thanks to the Black Bears, the Eagles are about to add a 3rd trophy to the trophy case this season in the form of another NCAA Title. :) :) :)
True statement about BC and their winning streak.Iwould have liked another stab at them
in NCAA regionals to see if we had anything for them.
One thing though…STOP saying UMO..it doesn’t exist anymore :)
Do not give up your day job to take up prophesying nOSTRA!! NCAA’s, Spencer Abbott injury to name a few………
I am not sure how people can profess to be a great fan and be happy with a coach who has put just a single trophy in the case over an eleven year career. If you are happy with mediocrity, good for you. As far as I am concerned, at this point, if you aren’t advocating a coaching change, you are not a Maine hockey fan. And you sound silly when you apologize for Whitehead.
To answer BBear94 who called me out 24 Mahoney articles ago…. I have a real life and have not been able to respond in a timely fashion…..i.e. God, family, country!!
Timmay would not be my first choice for head coach. Would I take him over Parker or Dennehy? Any day, all day long… Did I call for a change in coaching in November when all was over but the crying, yes. Did I defend him a couple times during the stretch run to keep a positive outlook for the TEAM, yes. Were the majority of my comments in support of the players and not necessarily the coaching staff, yes.
Tim is a great person, nice guy, and may be the best X’s and O’s coach out there, but when your team has blown a 2 goal lead in the NCAA’s and cannot generate more than 3 scoring chances in the last period of their season, they do not need X’s and O’s any more. They need a coach who will light a fire, lead, and motivate these kids to skate and dig deeper than ever before to save their season…..
When there is a timeout, whether it be tv or coach selected, and the camera pans in and I see the coach just standing there, it makes me ill. The coach should be talking nonstop to his players any chance he gets, to criticize, to correct, to praise, and most importantly, to motivate!! Did not see that…..
The players know all of the strategies and game plans 6 months into the season (hopefully). What they needed was a leader and a motivator….
If Tim expects to have a future with Maine Hockey, then he needs to continue his growth and learn that there is a time for fundamentals, and that there is a time for someone to say “boys, go out there and play like there is no tomorrow!!”.
You know the program has hit a low when making the NCAA’s and losing is considered “exceeding expectations” :)