Scout.com > Western Michigan Maine Black Bears to Host WMU Story URL: http://westernmichigan.scout.com/2/71428.html Scott Mohler BroncosIllustrated.com Oct 22, 2002 The Bronco hockey team will try to continue the success it had last year against Maine with a weekend series in Orono, Maine. Maine (2-1-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East) is a national power that will put up a hard fight against WMU (2-2-0, 2-2-0 CCHA). The Broncos of Western Michigan are coming off being swept by Notre Dame in convincing fashion 4-2, and 8-5. After two home and home series so far this season the team will head out for its first real road trip of the season to take on a team that made it to the NCAA Frozen Four. Head coach Jim Culhane had some thoughts on Maine, “We’re excited to go out there, [Maine] is a perennial national power… it’s going to be a very exciting weekend for us, one that were going to have to work extremely hard and execute very well to give ourselves an opportunity to be representing the CCHA.” Goaltending has been a question for WMU with freshman Scott Foster (4.78 GAA, .810 SV%) and sophomore Mike Mantua (4.71 GAA, .833 SV%) vying for playing time. “What we’d like to see with the program is having two guys that we feel very comfortable with playing and I think that’s the direction we’re heading in,” said Culhane, “so I feel very confident in both Scott and Mike.” Foster played well as the starter against Bowling Green State, both wins, and has been playing very good in practice. The second year veteran Mantua played a good game this last Friday despite giving up four goals in the loss to the Irish of Notre Dame. Foster got another start Saturday against Notre Dame, but gave up five goals in just 30:05 of playing time, forcing head coach Jim Culhane to put Mantua in the net to finish the game with six saves on eight shots. Culhane’s club will have to make some adjustments to be able to be competitive with the Black Bears. “We need to work a lot harder,” Culhane said, “we need better execution, I think we need to work a lot harder for a more sustained period of time. If your not whiling to work hard, you’re going to have the end result we had this weekend, so our work ethic needs to be better.” The offense was unable to put sustained pressure on the Irish last weekend, and will have to fore check better and be more aggressive to win. The defense will also have to step up to stop the offensive stars they will be facing, and not allow too many scoring opportunities. The University of Maine hockey team split their games last weekend being shutout by Colorado College 3-0 Friday, then beating Alaska-Anchorage 4-2 Saturday in Alaska as part of the Nye Frontier Classic. The Black Bears went 1-7 on the power play on the weekend, while holding opponents to 1-9 on the short-handed situations. Jimmy Howard took the loss in goal on Friday for Maine making 29 saves. Frank Doyle got the start in goal Saturday making 22 saves on 24 shots. Colin Shields, Troy Barnes, Robert Liscak, and Chris Heisten scored the goals for Maine in the win Saturday night. The junior Shields, who scored 29 times last year, already leads the team with four goals on the season, including a hat trick against Lake Superior State on October 12. Maine is led by second year head coach Tim Whitehead who was last years Spencer Penrose Award winner as the national coach of the year. Whitehead took over as interim head coach last season after head coach Shawn Walsh died of cancer less then 24 hours before the teams first scheduled practice. Whitehead was hired as the permanent head coach on April 4, 2002 and took the team to within 53 seconds of winning the NCAA Championship before losing to Minnesota in overtime. The success of last season puts a lot of pressure on the team, who is expected to be just about as good as last season. The Black Bears do have the challenge of replacing all-conference goaltenders Matt Yates and Mike Morrison. Currently sophomore Frank Doyle (2.00 GAA, .917 SV%) and freshman Jimmy Howard (2.19 GAA, 911 SV%) are receiving the majority of the playing time. In that respect Maine is very similar to Western Michigan with the two-goalie system, and they also have a freshman, Ray Jean, waiting in the wings. The strength of Maine’s team is their forwards. Seniors Martin Kariya, Robert Liscak, Tommy Reimann and Lucas Lawson are all returning from 30-point seasons last year. Whitehead says of his forwards, “I really like our forwards… we have a real good core of forwards. If we have a couple guys who elevate and continue to improve like they did last year, then I think we're going to be in great shape up front.” Whitehead was deep enough on offense last season that he moved one of his forwards to defense, and may do the same again this year with their young defense. On defense the Black Bears lost Peter Metcalf to graduation and lost Michael Schutte to the professional ranks, and the young guys on the team will need to step up and fill the holes they left. Both games this weekend can be heard on the Bronco Hockey Radio Network, led by Cool101 WQXC (100.9fm), and on Internet broadcast at www.wmubroncos.com. Copyright © Scout.com and BroncosIllustrated.com