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 Men's Ice Hockey Travels to New Hampshire for Sunday Tilt
Dec. 11, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
The University of Maine men's ice hockey team got back to its winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Merrimack on Saturday, Dec. 8 at Alfond Arena. The Black Bears will be looking to finish the first semester at the .500 mark when they travel to New Hampshire on Dec. 16 for the final game of the first semester. Maine enters the game with a record of 5-6-2 overall and 3-4-2 in Hockey East play. New Hampshire is 8-4-1, 5-4-1 in conference play. DUFFY HAT TRICK LEADS MAINE PAST MERRIMACK: Matt Duffy (Windham, Maine) scored his first collegiate hat trick to lead Maine past Merrimack on Dec. 8. Duffy got the Black Bears on the board 4:03 into the second period. Simon Danis-Pepin (Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec) had a shot from the blueline that hit Wes Clark (Oakville, Ontario) who was to the left of Merrimack goalie Patrick Watson. Clark passed to Jeff Marshall (Kyle, Saskatchewan) who shot the puck. Watson stopped the shot by Marshall, but left a rebound to his right. Duffy collected the loose puck and deposited it into the net. Maine added to its lead midway through the third period when Marshall found Clark in front of the Merrimack net. Clark then passed to Duffy who beat Watson for his second goal of the night. The Warriors pulled to within one goal when Francois Ouimet broke up Ben Bishop's (Des Peres, Mo.) shutout bid with 1:54 remaining in the game. Merrimack then pulled Watson for an extra skater. Tanner House (Cochrane, Alberta) collected the puck in the defensive zone and found Rob Bellamy (Westfield, Mass.) near center ice. Bellamy passed to a wide-open Duffy who scored his third goal of the night to earn the hat trick. Bishop stopped 26 of 27 shots that he faced to record the win. He improves to 5-6-2 on the season. Watson made 22 saves and falls to 4-6-2 on the campaign. SCOUTING THE MAINE BLACK BEARS: Maine is led by Wes Clark who has two goals and a team-high seven assists for nine points. Bret Tyler (Maynard, Mass.) is chipping in with four goals and four assists for eight points. Billy Ryan (Milford, Mass.) has a pair of goals and four assists for six points. Rob Bellamy also has six points on a goal and five assists. Matt Duffy and Chris Hahn (Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan) each have four goals and one assist for five points. Hahn leads Maine with two short-handed goals. Keenan Hopson (Prince George, British Columbia) has three goals and two assists for five points, while Andrew Sweetland (Bonavista, Newfoundland) also has five points on two goals and three assists. Jeff Marshall has a goal and four assists for five points. Ben Bishop is 5-6-2 on the season with a 2.36 goals against average and a .919 save percentage. DUFFY NAMED CCM/RBK HOCKEY EAST PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior forward Matt Duffy was named the CCM/RBK Hockey East Player of the Week on Monday, Dec. 9. He becomes the first Maine player to be named Hockey East Player of the Week this year. Duffy scored a hat trick in Maine's 3-1 win over Merrimack on Saturday, Dec. 8. The hat trick was the first of Duffy's career. RAMSEY NAMED LOWE'S SENIOR CLASS AWARD CANDIDATE: Maine senior captain Travis Ramsey (Lakewood, Calif.) has been named an official candidate for the men's hockey division of the 2007-08 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Ramsey was named as one of the 20 official candidates on Monday, Dec. 9. The award - presented annually to the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year in eight sports - focuses on the "Four C's" of classroom, character, community and competition. From the list of 20 nominees, a national media committee will select 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in late January 2008. Those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot for a nationwide vote that will include coaches, media and fans. The award winner will be announced and recognized at the 2008 NCAA Frozen Four in Denver, Colo. Ramsey joins New Hampshire's Matt Fornataro as the lone two players from Hockey East to be named official nominees. SCOUTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE WILDCATS: New Hampshire is 8-4-1 on the season and 5-4-1 in Hockey East play. The Wildcats are led by Matt Fornataro who has six goals and a team-high 11 assists for 17 points. He is tied for the team-lead with three power play goals. James vanRiemsdyk has six goals and nine assists for 15 points. Mike Radja has a team-high eight goals and four assists for 12 points. Brad Flaishans has four goals and eight assists for 12 points. Paul Thompson has six goals and four assists for 10 points. Jerry Pollastrone is chipping in with four goals and six assists for 10 points as well. Kevin Regan has seen action in nine games in goal for the Wildcats. He is 6-3-0 with a 2.46 goals against average and a .912 save percentage. Brian Foster is 2-1-1 in four games with a 2.90 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. New Hampshire is coached by Dick Umile (New Hampshire '72) who is in his 18th season. He has a career record of 407-201-64. He is assisted by David Lassonde (Providence '84), Scott Borek (Dartmouth '85). MAINE VS. NEW HAMPSHIRE ALL-TIME: Maine and New Hampshire have met 97 times with the Black Bears holding a 53-39-5 advantage. New Hampshire won two of the three meetings last season. The two teams have split the last 10 meetings, with each team winning five games. Billy Ryan leads all Black Bears against New Hampshire as he has four goals and three assists in his career against the Wildcats. Bret Tyler has a pair of goals and an assist. Keenan Hopson has three assists, while Rob Bellamy has a pair of assists. Matt Duffy is chipping in with a goal. He scored the game-winning goal in Maine's lone victory last year. Ben Bishop is 2-3 against New Hampshire in six games. He has a 3.09 goals against average and a .887 save percentage. BISHOP TIES HOWARD ON ALL-TIME WINS LIST: With his win on Dec. 8 against Merrimack, goalie Ben Bishop tied former standout Jimmy Howard (2002-05) for fifth place on Maine's all-time wins list with 47. Bishop is 13 wins shy of tying Alfie Michaud (1996-99) for fourth place. Michaud, who led Maine to its second National Championship in 1999, finished his career with 60 career victories. Bishop is currently in eighth place on Maine's all-time saves list with 1,826. HAT TRICK FOR DUFFY: Matt Duffy recorded his first career hat trick on Dec. 8 against New Hampshire. It was the first hat trick for a Black Bear since Josh Soares scored three goals against Boston University on January 13, 2007. STAYING OUT OF THE BOX: Maine has been staying out of the penalty box lately. The Black Bears were whistled for just two penalties on Dec. 8 against Merrimack. Maine is averaging 11.8 penalty minutes per game. Maine is averaging just 8.9 penalty minutes per game in conference games. Maine's average of 8.9 penalty minutes are second in the league, just behind UMass Lowell, who is taking just 8.8 penalty minutes per game. It was the second time this season that Maine has been whistled for just two penalties in a game against Merrimack as the Black Bears took just two penalties on Nov. 16 against the Warriors.
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