ORONO, Maine —- The 4,290 Alfond Arena faithful breathed a collective sigh of relief when University of Maine hockey standout Devin Shore continued to play after he violently struck the side of the penalty box after the penalty box door flew open during Sunday’s exhibition game against New Brunswick.
“Their guy won the race to a puck, and I threw myself up against the boards because I thought he was going to try to chip it by me,” explained Shore, a junior captain and All-American. “I tried to block the puck. The door opened up, and I got a pretty bad charley horse from it.”
Shore said he was “fine” on Monday and ready for the trip to Anchorage, Alaska, this weekend when Maine will play Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams Alaska-Anchorage at midnight Friday and Alaska-Fairbanks at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Alaska-Anchorage was chosen sixth among 10 teams in the coaches preseason poll and seventh in the media poll, while Alaska-Fairbanks was fifth in both thanks to the return of juniors Tyler Morey, a forward, and Colton Parayko, a defenseman. They were preseason All-WCHA selections.
Maine coach Red Gendron gave his teams mixed reviews on the 8-3 exhibition win after watching videotape on Monday.
“We wanted to evaluate our players, work on our conditioning and get a win (and we did all of those things),” said Gendron. “But we made a million mistakes. We have to do a much better job executing our systems.”
Rutt relishing alternate captain’s role
Scarborough’s Jake Rutt is just the fourth Maine native in the program’s 38-year history to be elected a captain or alternate captain.
Senior defenseman Rutt is an alternate captain and will wear the “A” on his jersey.
The other three were forwards: Bowdoin’s Mike McHugh (1986-87, 87-88), Lisbon’s Greg Moore (2005-06) and Lewiston’s Mark Anthoine (2013-14).
“I take a lot of pride in it because my teammates voted on it. And being a Maine native makes it even more special because of the pride and history of this program. I’m going to lead by [example],” he said. “The last captain was Mark Anthoine, and I want to follow in his footsteps.”
Rutt was encouraged by what he saw Sunday night.
“Everyone pretty much brought it,” said Rutt. “The goalies got a little experience and played very well.
“The defense had a few miscues, but those can obviously be corrected. The forwards played well, also,” added Rutt.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Rutt had a goal and six assists in 33 games last season after a sophomore year in which he had four goals and six assists in 36 games. He had four assists in 13 games as a freshman.
“I want to be really hard to play against defensively,” said Rutt in discussing his individual expectations. “I want to make sure my plus-minus is good. If I can net a few goals, yeah, if the team needs that. But my biggest worry is the defensive zone. I want to break the puck out with ease. Offensively, I want to get pucks through [to the net] and move it. I want to keep it on my forehand and make simpler, risk-free plays.”
Plus-minus is a defensive statistic that sees a player earn a plus-one if he is on the ice when his team scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal and get assessed a minus-one if he is on the ice when his team gives up an even-strength or shorthanded goal.
Rutt was a plus-two last season.
Higgins making Alaska trip
The Black Bears were without senior center and alternate captain Stu Higgins Sunday night, but Higgins said he will be making the trip to Alaska.
Higgins has recovered from offseason knee surgery but was slowed in the preseason by a tender foot after it absorbed a teammate’s shot.
“It was pretty much a precautionary measure,” said Higgins. “I feel good. I’ve been skating.”
Higgins had his best offensive season last year despite playing in only 20 games because of a knee injury suffered in the exhibition win over New Brunswick on Jan. 21. He had six goals and four assists.
Higgins watched in a suit from the bench and was impressed with his mates.
“Overall, the guys played pretty well. It was good to see all the freshmen contribute because, like Devin said last night, it’ll be huge all year if they can consistently do that.
“The freshmen all played to their strengths. They’re all different types of players, skilled players and physical players, and the fact they all contributed on the stat sheet while maintaining their style of play is promising,” he said.
Forwards Jack Musil, Cedric Lacroix and Nolan Vesey each had a goal and an assist and Liam Pecararo had an assist, while Mark Hamilton and Malcolm Hayes had productive minutes on defense and Romeo was sharp in goal.