MAINE BLACK BEARS VS BU TERRIERS LIVE BLOG

TIM WHITEHEAD POSTGAME


PHOTOS FROM GAME



Link to game recap of the 5-2 Maine loss.

Maine Falls 7 - 4 to Boston University

TIM WHITEHEAD POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE


GAME PHOTO ALBUM

 

EASTER SUNDAY QUICK HITTERS

• The Maine Black Bears Baseball team was rained out in Connecticut today and will make up 2 against Hartford. The Women's Softball team continue their winning ways by taking a double header from Binghamton in New York.
• The Portland Sea Dogs dropped a 2nd game to the Defenders on Saturday, 10 - 4.
• The AHL announced playoff pairings and schedules today, and the Portland Pirates draw the Providence Bruins in the 1st Round. The Pirates clinched a playoff birth by beating the Baby B's Friday night at the CX4.
• The Boston Red Sox got back on the winning side of things, beating the California Angels 5-4 on the back of 2 Jason Bay HR's...Manny who?!?
• The Boston Bruins got blasted by the Pirates parent club, the Buffalo Sabres. Manny Fernandez show once again he isn't the answer as Buffalo beats the Bruins 6 - 1.
• Jack Parker and Boston University won their 6 NCAA Hockey title in a 4 - 3 stunner in Washington DC. Down 3 - 1 with less than 1 minute to play, BU scored 2 times on Miami (OH) to tie the game. Then at 11:47 of OT, BU's Colby Cohen set up for a blue line blast when the Miami(OH) defenseman fell to the ice for the block in front of and delflected the puck into their own goal to give BU the title.
• The Boston Celtics work their way to the NBA Playoffs beating the Miami Heat 105 - 98

Monday Morning Quick Hitters

COURTESY BOSTON.COM

The Maine Black Bears Softball team dropped a double header to UMBC Sunday 7 - 4 and 5 - 0.

Tim Kennedy, fresh off his first professional fight Saturday night, used his offensive skills to net the game winner for the Portland Pirates. The Pirates beat the Springfield Falcons 4 - 3 Sunday afternoon for their 3 win in 3 days.

The #1 ranked Boston University Terriers used a late crease defection to beat the New Hampshire Wildcats in Manchester, NH 2 - 1. BU now moves on to the Frozen Four in Washington DC.

The Boston Bruins used spectacular goaltending by Tim Thomas to a 4 - 3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Eddie House was the spark again, coming off the bench to help power the Celtics to a 103 - 84 win over Oklahoma City at the TD Banknorth Garden. Eddie House scored 16 points of the bench for the C's

Maine-BU Post Game Press Conferences

Here is the Audio of the Maine-BU Post Game Press Conferences

Maine Black Bears Coach Tim Whitehead Game 3 Press Conference


Jack Parker Maine-BU Game 3 Post Game Press Conference

Maine Black Bears LIVE BLOG!!!!!!!

Game 3 of 3 TONIGHT!!!!!!! WINNER MOVES ON TO THE TD BANKNORTH GARDEN...LOSER GOES HOME!

Maine Wins BIG in Beantown...forces Game 3

Listening to a man that has coached at the same school for 36 years is probably a good idea. Jack Parker has seen a lot in his career at Boston University, amassing 2 NCAA Championships and 10 ECAC or Hockey East Titles.

"In reality...they should probably be going home and getting ready for the (TD Banknorth) Garden, because we stole one (Friday) night and now they come back and beat us 6 - 3.", said Parker.

Parker knows best.

The 1st period was a topsy turvy, action filled period that any hockey fan would love. Maine got things going early as Senior Chris Haun netted a pretty pass from Gustav Nyquist 42 seconds into the game to go up 1 - 0. BU came back a little over 2 minutes later to tie the game at 1, when BU's Branden Yip came down the side, got a nice pass from Colin Wilson and blasted one past Maine freshman goaltender Scott Darling for his 17th goal of the season. Maine then had 2 terrible giveaways over the next 6 minutes, both leading to goals. The first was a 4 on 4 tilt, set up by BU Captain John McCarthy and Maine Senior Co-Captain Simon Danis-Pepin off for roughing, when Maine Sophomore Defenseman Josh Van Dyk tried a cross ice pass in traffic. BU's Matt Gilroy grabbed the puck, slid a nice open lane pass to Bu's Luke Popko who beat Darling through the 3 hole. Popko's goal put BU up 2 -1 on the Black Bears.

More chippiness ensued that led to a Maine power play, as Tanner House laid a big hit on a BU defenseman and BU's Chris Connolly got whistled for a retaliatory hooking call at 10:24 of the 1st. Maine Sophomore Defenseman Jeff Dimmen tried skating the puck out of the right side Maine offensive zone, over skated it, tried a quick pass that was intercepted by Jason Lawrence who sent McCarthy for an easy breakaway goal on Darling,for BU's 9th shorthanded goal of the season. BU's shorthanded goal put them up 3 -1.

What could have been a back-breaker, wasn't. Maine Coach Tim Whitehead felt confident his team would keep their composure being down 2.

"I thought they continued to play...we felt really good on the bench...I could see they felt confident...they were just playing the game and not too worried about it," said Whitehead.

That attitude brought results on the ice. With Connolly still off for hooking, Windham's Matt Duffy had a blue line blast that BU Goaltender Kieran Millan stopped easily, but Maine's Tanner House was able to control the puck in a scrum, slipped it Nyquist, who went top shelf, glove side on Millan to close the deficit to 3 -2. Maine kept the pressure on quickly with a score less then 30 seconds later. Danis-Pepin threw a nice outlet pass to Kevin Swallow who put it right on the stick of Keif Orsini. Orsini blasted a quick wrister that Millan got a piece of, but not enough as the puck trickled to his left post. Maine quickly erupted, the ref, who was positioned perfectly, called it a goal as BU and Maine players crashed into the net in a pile. After video review the goal stood, Maine evened the game at 3. All in all in the 1st period, 6 goals, 25 Shots on Goal and 20 penalty minutes. Following the roller coaster ride of the 1st, calmer heads and defenses prevailed.

Maine's defense clamped down like it hadn't before this season. The defense allowed goalie Scott Darling clear sailing the rest way by continuing to clear rebounds.

Coach Whitehead said, "At Lowell, we didn't do a good job at protecting Scott (Darling), we had some (2nd chances by BU), but not nearly as many. I thought our defense was much more aware on the weak side and helping (Scott) out." Maine only allowed 18 shots the rest of the game, only 4 of those being quality shots.

Maine got the lead for good as Danis-Pepin fed Spencer Abbot, who blasted a shot past Millan for the 4 - 3 lead. Good teams make runs, but this time Maine seemed to have the answer. With less than a minute left in the 2nd, BU got their offense rolling and moved the puck to the net. BU's McCarthy had an open net with 10 seconds left, but Darling slammed the door shut.

Said Nyquist,"It gave us a big boost, we came after them in the 3rd period."

That they did. Maine handled everything BU dished out, netting 2 more power play goals, the 1st 6:16 into the 3rd. Nyquist got another pretty top shelf job and Robbie D finished off the scoring for the game at 11:04 of the 3rd to put Maine up 6 - 3.

Game 3 of the Best of 3 Series is tonight, 7PM at Agganis Arena in Boston.

Coach Whitehead knows what lies ahead for this team " We know what we are up against (Sunday), It's going to be a tough challenge"

Series Notes

Maine is 5 - 10 on the Power Play this series....Maine hadn't scored 6 goals since December of 96....Boston University Goaltender Kieran Millan hasn't allowed 3 goals in a period in his career.

Post Game Audio

Maine Black Bears Coach Tim Whitehead and Forward Gustav Nyquist Press Conference

Boston University Coach Jack Parker Press Conference

Maine Black Bears v Boston University Terriers LIVE BLOG!

Join us LIVE from Agganis Arena in Boston as the Maine Black Bears take on the Boston University Terriers in Hockey East Playoff Game 2.

The CMSB "Day of Hockey 2" LIVE BLOGS

The Central Maine Sports Blog is at it once again, going to Boston for our "Day of Hockey 2"


1st we will be at the TD Banknorth Garden for the Boston Bruins/New York Islanders tilt, starting our Live Blog around 12:30.

Next at 6:30 PM, we will be at Agganis Arena for Game 2 of the Maine / BU Round 1 Hockey East Playoff Matchup.

Join Us for Both Live Blogs!!!

A Day of Hockey Roundup

The Boston Bruins played what might have been their most complete game of the season Saturday. The Carolina Hurricanes were no match for the stout offense offered up by the Bruins Michael Ryder and David Krejci. Ryder scored 2 goals and David Krejci netted his 16th goal and 44th and 45th assists of the season to power the Bruins past the Hurricanes 5 - 1.

Providence Bruins callup Byron Bitz slid right into the Bruins schemes, impressing Claude Julian. “I really liked his game. I thought in his first real NHL game he came in there and wasn’t intimidated by anything that surrounded him” Julien said. Bitz got plenty of work, netting almost 10 minutes of ice time on 15 shifts. He also got his first NHL point, assisting on Mark Stuart's goal at 3:27 of the 2nd period. Julien summed up Bitz's day “(Bitz) made some great plays. He was in front of the net, got his nose dirty. He’s a physical player and he uses his size to his advantage. "

Zedano Chara also uses size to his advantage, blasting many unsuspecting Hurricanes along the way, including shutting down Carolina's main gun Eric Staal. Staal was unable to make anything happen all game long with Chara's physical play, Stall ended up a -2 for the day.

Chara's physical play rubbed off on the other Bruins, as Matt Hunwick got into his 1st NHL tussle. Hunwick's open ice blast on the the Canes Justin Williams eventually sparked the fight in which Hunwick put Williams on the ice with a huge overhand right.

Other Game Notes:

-Martins Karsums was also called up from Providence, and also got his 1st NHL point, assisting on Stephane Yelle's 1st period goal.

- Former Bruin Sergei Samsonov played in his 700th NHL game

- Carolina Goaltenter Cam Ward was pulled at the 3:27 mark of the 2nd Period, marking the 8th time this season the Bruins have faced 2 Goaltenders in a game. The Bruins are 8 - 0 in those games.



The University of Maine didn't fare quite so well as the Boston Bruins earlier in the day. The #2 ranked Boston University Terriers, coming off their holiday Denver Cup Championship, seemed to toy with the Black Bears all game long.

The main toy maker was BU forward Chris Connolly. Connolly scored 2 goals and had a game high 5 shots, all the while making Maine look bad on all ends of the ice. Maine got a 5 minute power play on BU winger Joe Pereira's 2nd game misconduct of the seasonin which Maine had to waste about 1:30 in their defensive zone due to the 1 - 4 forecheck by Connolly. Connolly, a freshman, played a very strong game.

Maine's lone highlight was a late 1st period goal by robbie Dee to tie the score at the time. Maine loses to BU 4 - 1. They fall to 10-8-2 on the season and 5-6-1 in Hockey East.

Maine Black Bears v Boston Univesity Terriers LIVE BLOG!