Goalies, explained Scott Darling, speak the same language - unintelligible to other position players in ice hockey. So it's no surprise that Maine's freshman goalie has been conversing with his teammate and road roommate, junior goalie Dave Wilson, about their trade.

"We talk about it all the time," Darling said. "It's nice to room with a goalie and goalies have a foreign language, so it's nice to be able to talk about it with someone who understands."

Darling was pulled from Saturday's 6-3 loss at No. 11 Boston College and his goals-against average has ballooned from 1.01 in early November to 2.18 entering this weekend.

"I think for me, it's between the ears right now," Darling said. "Which has been causing me, to, I think, to play a little bit deeper and I'm more worried. I think my problem was I was afraid to get scored on. You can't be thinking that as a goalie. You've got to focus on every shot and you've got to trust yourself that you're going to stop it."

In the past four games, Wilson and Darling have split time in the nets, and have done so on a team that's winless in its past eight and has scored only seven goals in the past four games. The Black Bears (10-11-3, 5-8-2 Hockey East) have averaged 2.29 goals a game this season - ninth in Hockey East.

"I'm not too worried about that," Darling said. "But for us, we can't afford any mistakes. We have to be sharp to get wins. I think it's all going to come around, eventually, if not this year."

As for the goalie situation for this weekend's games Friday against UMass-Lowell and Sunday against Massachusetts, Maine Coach Tim Whitehead has yet to make a decision with the starters, short-term or long-term..

"We haven't been told yet," Wilson said prior to Thursday's practice at Alfond Arena. "It's one game at a time, one week at a time. However it goes, I'll be ready."

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These two captains are in disaccord - Maine defenseman Simon Danis-Pepin and Jeff Marshall have two different Super Bowl picks. Danis-Pepin's picking the Steelers to win Lombardi Trophy No. 6, while Marshall is picking underdog Arizona.

"I like the underdog," Marshall said. "But I think Pittsburgh's going to win."

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