One year, two players had to re-route their flights out of Minnesota from Bangor to Orlando, Fla., then take a taxicab to their final destination, three hours south of Disney World.

Another year, a few bags of equipment were lost somewhere between Maine and Florida and the University of Maine men's hockey team had to improvise, borrowing shin guards, elbow pads and skate laces from the local minor-league hockey team, and even rummaging through lost-and-found bins for spare pieces of equipment.

But this season, the Black Bears and their equipment made it from Bangor International Airport to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for the Florida College Classic. The Black Bears open the tournament tomorrow against Colgate.

While the "getting there" part wasn't much trouble for the Black Bears, returning to Orono in time for practice Christmas morning was another story. Because of winter storms that hit the midwest, many players had to find alternate ways to get back to campus. Maine goalie Scott Darling re-routed his Chicago-to-Bangor flight to Boston, and drove back to Orono with teammate Will O'Neill, who lives in Salem, Mass.

Some of Darling's teammates also scheduled their arrival for a reasonable hour on Dec. 24, but that changed because of airport delays and cancellations.

"Technically, a lot of us made it back early morning on the 25th," Maine forward Tanner House said.

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