Alaska’s motto is “north to the future.”
It’s a fitting place for the Maine hockey team to begin a season whose direction will be shaped largely by one crucial question: Who will mind the net?
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OPENING WEEKEND
The University of Maine men’s hockey team opens this weekend in Alaska with one game each against that state’s two Division I teams. Times listed are Eastern time.
Friday: vs. Alaska-Anchorage, 11:59 p.m.
Saturday: vs. Alaska-Fairbanks, 8 p.m.
The Black Bears will drop the puck at midnight Eastern time against Alaska-Anchorage on Friday, then follow with an 8 p.m. Saturday game against Alaska-Fairbanks.
For three goaltenders, it will be the beginning of an audition to replace the graduated Martin Ouellette, who played virtually every minute for Maine last winter in a 16-15-4 season.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen with the situation,” said sophomore Matt Morris, the most experienced goalie by virtue of the six games he played two seasons ago before hip surgery.
“I feel confident (that) whoever’s in net, we have a great chance.”
Freshmen Nik Nugnes and Sean Romeo are the others vying for playing time. All said that they look forward to the competition.
Coach Red Gendron said Morris, who was the MVP of the playoffs while leading the Dubuque (Iowa) Fighting Saints to the title in the U.S. Hockey League in 2011, is the front-runner. But Gendron said he’s comfortable rotating goaltenders, which figures to be common early in the season.
“Whatever combination or which individual goalie plays that’s going to yield us more victories, that’s the way we’re going to go,” Gendron said. “I don’t have some overriding philosophy that I have to stick to.”
In Sunday’s exhibition victory over New Brunswick, Morris played 34:29 and surrendered one goal on 16 shots. Romeo was in net for 20 minutes, allowing two goals on 12 shots. Nugnes didn’t play as walk-on Chris Howat mopped up in the 8-3 win.
Morris said he was dealing with a left hip injury for two or three years before deciding to have surgery and miss last season.
He wasn’t completely healthy until June but can feel the difference in his mobility.
“Even for a goalie of my size (5-foot-11, 195 pounds), it’s important to have a wide butterfly (style) and be very good side to side, and I think the surgery has definitely helped my lateral movement,” Morris said.
“I could definitely tell my freshman year that I was restricted in certain ways. Then I got my hip surgery and now it’s completely healed.”
Morris counts quickness and the ability to control rebounds as his strengths.
Romeo is the smallest of the three at 6-foot-1, 165 pounds. The North Carolina native had a rough season for an inexperienced Youngstown Phantoms team in the USHL last winter, with a 3.42 goals-against average and .891 save percentage. He arrived in Orono in late July and quickly started working on getting better.
“I think I’m a good skater, I think I move the puck well,” he said. “I’m trying to get faster, be more explosive and just more consistent. I want to be post to post faster, react faster, have faster hands.”
Nugnes has the largest frame, at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. He left his junior team in Connecticut last winter to enroll at Maine early. He said getting acclimated to the school and being able to skate with the team for half a season were invaluable. He even got to travel to Notre Dame and dress as an emergency backup to Ouellette when Dan Sullivan was injured.
“I thought it was the perfect warmup for me,” Nugnes said. “There’s a lot more depth at this level. Everybody’s good, everybody can score, you’ve got to be on your game to compete here. There’s a lot of mechanics stuff that is a necessity at this level because they’ll pick you apart if you have any holes.”
The three said competing for playing time is a way of life for goaltenders at all levels. None expressed any problem with being forced to prove themselves.
“I’ve been fortunate to be in some situations similar to this,” Morris said of his three years in junior hockey. “I feel you can always build off the other guy. Seeing him compete makes you compete more. It’s a team sport and I just want the team to win. Absolutely, it makes you a better player.”
Romeo said the situation has even bred a camaraderie of sorts.
“We’re a little weird but we’re weird together,” he said. “You’ve got to be weird to want to get hit by a puck, I think.”
Away from the weirdness, the Black Bear veteran skaters profess no concerns about who ends up in goal.
“They’ve worked really, really hard. All of them have worked their backs off,” said junior forward Devin Shore, the team captain. “It doesn’t matter who’s in net, we’re very confident.”
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