ORONO - For some teams, size does matter. In particular, the size of the rink they're playing hockey in.

Massachusetts, Maine's opponent this weekend, is one of a handful of Hockey East teams that play on an Olympic-sized rink - the Minutemen play home games on a 200-foot by 95-foot surface at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass., as opposed to Maine's 200-by-85 rink at Alfond Arena. The international game is played on rink that's 200 feet by roughly 100 feet (98.42 feet in width, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation).

A few more feet of ice surface can cause a few more problems for a team's strategy. Maine found this out two weeks ago at the Whittemore Center in Durham, N.H., one of Hockey East's Olympic-sized rinks. This weekend, UMass will use the larger rink to their advantage by using their team speed to cover the surface.

"You have to stay inside the dots (the faceoff circles) and force wide-angle shots," Maine defenseman Matt Duffy said of playing on a larger ice sheet.

"The biggest thing is puck possession," Maine forward Chris Hahn said. "You have to be careful with what you do with the puck. You have to have guys supporting you all the time. It's a lot tougher to get in on the forecheck."

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There's no mincing words when it comes to the importance of this weekend's series. Maine and UMass are tied for seventh place in Hockey East with 17 points, five points ahead of Providence (12 points). The top eight teams in the 10-team Hockey East Conference qualify for the playoffs, which begin March. 13.

"This is a huge weekend for both teams," Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said. "We were fortunate to be one goal better than them two weeks ago (a 2-1 win Feb. 1) at our rink. Now we've got two games with them."

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