Was Friday the night the Maine hockey team finally got its offense on track?
It seems presumptuous, but now the Black Bears' confidence in its offense might be on the upswing entering the second game of the series tonight against Niagara.

Consider the numbers: Maine had scored just four goals on 110 shots in its first four games of the season, including just one goal on 56 shots last weekend against Northeastern.

"Last weekend we proved shot totals don't win games and you have bury chances when you get them," Maine forward Chris Hahn said. "That was the key for us."

Maine goalie Dave Wilson agreed.

"We know we can score now and that's always a big plus going into games, knowing that we have the offensive talent," Wilson said. "The past couple games have been a shutout or have been low-scoring, so we were kind of doubting ourselves out there. But with the offense (Friday), we were really happy with it. We got some real quality shots out there."

Expect Scott Darling to start tonight, as the Maine coaching staff will continue rotating goalies for now.

Tanner House scored a pair of goals and Chris Hahn scored the go-ahead goal with 6:47 left in the third period as the Maine hockey team defeated Niagara 4-2 Friday at Alfond Arena.

Maine goalie Dave Wilson made 33 saves and freshman forward Gustav Nyquist had a goal and two assists for the Black Bears.

Niagara goalie Adam Avramenko, making his first start, finished with 18 saves.

Maine hosts Niagara at 7:30 tonight at Alfond Arena.

Coming from a small conference, the Niagara University hockey team believes it builds its reputation on its nonconference schedule.

So far this season the Purple Eagles of the College Hockey America conference have faced two nationally ranked teams in No. 14 Clarkson and No. 5 Michigan, and travel to Orono to face the University of Maine in a two-game series that begins Friday at Alfond Arena.

"It helps us in our recruiting," Niagara Coach Dave Burkholder said. "We promise 20 league games in the CHA and we have the luxury of at least 14 non-conference games."

But the flip side is that so many nonconference opponents are a necessity for Niagara and its College Hockey America counterparts (Bemidji (Minn.) State, Robert Morris (Pa.) and Alabama-Huntsville), as the nine-year-old conference has shrunk over the past two years.

Two years ago, Air Force left the conference to join Atlantic Hockey and the NCAA granted the conference a waiver to allow the conference to have an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

But after Wayne State dropped its hockey program after last season, there is still uncertainty surrounding the CHA, according to the College Hockey News Web site.

The conference, which has often been on the brink of extinction -- and never moreso than following the folding of Wayne State's program after last season -- has received approval from the NCAA Championships and Competition Cabinet for an automatic bid to this year's NCAA tournament.

Nonetheless, a waiver has been granted to the league, and will be reviewed on a year-to-year basis.

Nothing's changed at the top in the two college hockey polls # Colorado College is still the No. 1 team in the nation in both the USCHO.com poll and in the USA Today poll.

***

Ben Bishop made his NHL debut over the weekend but left Saturday's game with the ubiquitous "upper body injury" that plagues NHL players, especially during the playoffs. Bishop expects to be ready by Thursday to return to the Blues' lineup.

Former Maine goalie Ben Bishop saw his first NHL action Friday when he played in a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.

Bishop stopped 15 of 17 shots after starter Manny Legace left after the first period with a hip flexor.

How did Legace suffer that injury? Legace tripped as he stepped onto the ice, stumbling on a carpet that had been put down on the ice for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who dropped the ceremonial puck before the game:

"I was going to ask (the arena worker) to move (the carpet), but he had his foot there, so I figured he was trying to secure it," Legace said. "He's yelling at us, 'Careful, the carpet ... Careful, the carpet.'

"I'm like I can't jump over it. It's too far and my little legs won't jump that far. I just figured he's holding it and the other end is usually secure, so I'm just worried about it sliding (one) way. As soon as I went down, he lifted his foot off the carpet ... I knew I was coming down and I just couldn't catch myself.

"It's not that serious ... we'll just see what happens (Saturday)."

I wonder who Bishop might vote for on Election Day.

It's pretty difficult for a team to gain any momentum after it's given up three goals in the first eight minutes of the game. And even more difficult against a goalie that's opened the season as one of the hottest netminders in the conference.

That was the story for the University of Maine, who, despite controlling the tempo of the game in the early moments, lost 5-0 and trailed 3-0 after Northeastern took its first four shots of the game.

Northeastern goalie Brad Thiessen stopped 29 shots and set a new record at Northeastern for career shutouts, passing Keni Gibson, who set the record in 2004-2005.

"Keni Gibson's been a big name in Hockey East and to pass someone like that is a big honor," Thiessen said.

"He's always been a pretty good competitor and a good goalie," Maine goalie Dave Wilson (21 saves) said of Thiessen. "We're going to have to really take his eyes away and play a tougher game in front of him. He's played a lot in this league and it shows out there."

This weekend is homecoming at the University of Maine, and six former Maine athletes will be inducted into the Black Bear Hall of Fame, including hockey player Dave Capuano, who now lives in Rhode Island.

The Providence Journal caught up with Capuano, a father of two who scored 89 goals and had 211 points in three seasons at Maine:

(Capuano) was Maine's first two-time first-team All-America and two-time Hobey Baker Award finalist. He was also first-team All-Hockey East and All-New England twice. In 104 NHL games with four teams Capuano scored 17 goals and assisted on 38 for 55 points. He retired after the 1994 season, which he spent with the Providence Bruins (24-29-53 in 51 games).

"The (NHL) experience on the whole was fantastic. I played with Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh. I had dinner with Wayne Gretzky. I went fishing with Paul Coffey," he said.

The Hockey East season is less than three weeks old but one thing is for certain - parity is a continuous hallmark of the conference. Especially when you consider that 12 games involving Hockey East teams so far this season have been decided by one goal.

"It's been that way ever since I've been in the league, and that was in 1990," said Maine Coach Tim Whitehead, who was a graduate assistant at Maine during the 1990-1991 season and coached at Massachusetts-Lowell before returning to Orono. "That's one of the strengths of Hockey East, that you're going to have it where everyone can compete at a high level. It's always been that way. Teams rise and fall each year but it's certainly not unusual for our league to have very tight competition."

After New Hampshire's 2-1 win over Boston University on Sunday, Wildcats Coach Dick Umile told reporters what to expect of Hockey East this season.

"That just tells you what it's going to be like in Hockey East this year," said Umile, whose team killed off consecutive 5-on-3 penalties. "It's going to be a long winter."

The St. Louis Blues recalled former Maine goalie Ben Bishop on Monday and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports today that the 6-foot-7 goalie could make his NHL debut Saturday against the Florida Panthers.

Originally, St. Louis planned for Bishop to spend this season with it's AHL team in Peoria, Ill., but was called up after Blues backup Chris Mason underwent an emergency appendectomy last week, and after Marek Schwarz was assigned to Peoria.

Here's what Blues starting goalie Manny Legace had to say to the P-D about Bishop:

Legace said that considering Bishop is from St. Louis, it would be ideal for him to start a game on the road. But the Blues don't have that option with their next five games at home.

"Coming home, playing in front of your home crowd, it's tough," Legace said. "It's going to be a little extra pressure, but he's going to have to get used to it. He's going to be playing about 20 years here. I know that for a fact."

***

Want to watch the Black Bears season opener? WPME in Portland (Channel 17 on Time Warner) will carry the Maine hockey games at 8:30 Friday night against Alaska-Anchorage and 11:30 Saturday night against Alaska-Fairbanks.

That's 4:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Alaskan Daylight Time ...

While Dave Wilson and Scott Darling will split time in goal for the University of Maine hockey team this season, former Maine goalie Ben Bishop is settling in with the Peoria Rivermen, the AHL affiliate of the St. Louis Blues. Save for one thing: Bishop had trouble finding housing in the Peoria area prior to the start of the season.

From NHL.com:

While it was easy to settle in at goal, the same could hardly be said about early life in Peoria. The local branch of Caterpillar recently hired a bunch of new employees, and while that is great for the economy it's made the rental market for Rivermen a real bear.

The situation looked so bleak that Peoria coach Davis Payne joked he might have had to come up with some emergency plans.

"I'd be the only coach with his goalies in the basement," he said.

Those extremes weren't necessary. Bishop found a place with teammates Cam Paddock and Jim Jackson.

Boston College is still No. 1 in the two college hockey polls, the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll for the week of Oct. 13 and the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports XXL Division I Men's Poll. The Eagles opened the season Saturday with a 5-4 win over Wisconsin. Hockey East teams went 8-2-1 in the first weekend of competition.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll
Team, Points, (First place votes), Last Poll, Record
1. Boston College, 507, (32), 1, 1-0-0
2. Michigan, 465, (1), 2, 2-0-0
3. Colorado College, 439, (1), 3, 2-0-0
4. Denver, 389, 6, 1-0-0
5. Boston University, 387, 9, 2-0-0
6. New Hampshire, 350, 7, 1-0-0
7. Miami (Ohio), 272, 8, 1-0-1
8. Notre Dame, 251, 4, 0-1-0
9. Minnesota, 216, 10, 0-0-0
10. St. Cloud State, 174, 15, 2-0-0
11. Michigan State, 163, 11, 1-1-0
12. Princeton, 130, 12, 0-0-0
13. North Dakota, 112, 5, 0-2-0
14. Clarkson, 83, 13, 0-0-0
15. Minnesota State, 59, NR, 2-0-0
Others receiving votes: Northeastern 18, Cornell 17, Northern Michigan 14, Vermont 10, Harvard 8, Wisconsin 8, U.S. Air Force Academy 5, Minnesota-Duluth 3.

The movie "Kingpin" is somewhere among Tim Whitehead's collection of DVDs. The Maine hockey coach will dust off the 1996 Woody Harrelson flick tonight and bring it along for the bus trip to Boston's Logan Airport, the first leg of Black Bears' trip to Alaska.

Watching the Farrelly brothers' lowbrow comedy about a former professional bowler who trains an Amish farmer to compete for a million-dollar bowling championship will prepare the Black Bears for a team bonding experience. During a five-hour layover in Seattle, the Black Bears will break the monotony of airport travel for a few frames of bowling on the West Coast.

"We have a few hours of a layover and with all the time sitting in airports, and sitting on buses and planes, we wanted to get out fo the airport and do something, get some physical activity that wasn't too rigorous but fun," Whitehead said Monday. "Kingpin's one of my favorite movies. It's a long season and there's a lot of travel, especially on this trip. Fortunately there's a bowling alley near the Seattle airport. We'll have some fun on the lanes, then get back to the airport and get back to business."

***

Hockey East officially opens its 25th season tonight with four games - Michigan faces Massachusetts in less than an hour in the Icebreaker tournament at Agganis Arena in Boston, followed by North Dakota against Boston University at 7:30.

Wisconsin plays top-ranked Boston College at 7 p.m. at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill.

Maine, meanwhile, has another week before it's opener against Alaska-Anchorage at the Alaskan Goal Rush Tournament in Fairbanks, Alaska. But one Hockey East team is already four time zones behind us. Northeastern faces Alaska-Fairbanks at 9 tonight in the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage. Alaska-Anchorage faces Connecticut in the second game tonight.

Huskies and more Huskies.

Finally, real ice time is on the near horizon. After spending the first few days of official practices by going intrasquad, the Black Bears will play two exhibition games at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, N.B., Friday and Saturday night at 6 p.m. EST (the Maritime provinces are an hour ahead of Maine). It'll be a three-and-a half-hour bus trip, complete with a stop at customs.

Maine will be the third American college team New Brunswick will face this fall. The Reds lost exhibition games to the University of Massachusetts (6-0) and Boston University (4-1). The New York Islanders' rookie team also defeated New Brunswick 4-1.

The Black Bears have a UNB connection. David Alexander, a volunteer assistant coach, works primarily with the goalies and graduated from UNB in 2006 with a degree in arts and education.

***

Two days after opening the season with Saturday's Blue-White intrasquad game, Maine Coach Tim Whitehead has a good idea what his team will focus on this week in preparation for this weekend, when the Black Bears play two games at the University of New Brunswick: team defense and puck management.

The first focus is self-explanatory. But, you might ask, what exactly does puck management entail?

"It's making the right play at the right time," Whitehead explained Monday afternoon. "Like in football, it's ball management, controlling and taking care of the ball, not making high-risk passes. If you don't have a play, where do you put the puck? You don't want to force the play when it's not there. With our team it's about chipping the pucks along the boards, or putting it to space. The key is not to force a play that isn't there."

Boston College is still No. 1, and the Eagles haven't even played an NCAA game yet. The Eagles remain the nation's top-ranked men's hockey team as the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll was released today.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll
(first-place votes in parenthesis)
Rank, School, Last Poll's Ranking, 2008-09 Record, Weeks in Top-15

1. Boston College, 500 (26) 1, 0-0-0, 2
2. University of Michigan, 452 (4) 2, 0-0-0, 2
3. Colorado College, 430 (4) 5, 0-0-0, 2
4. University of Notre Dame, 378 3, 0-0-0, 2
5. University of North Dakota, 361 4, 0-0-0, 2
6. University of Denver, 328 6, 0-0-0, 2
7. University of New Hampshire, 275 7, 0-0-0, 2
8. Miami (Ohio) University, 259 8, 0-0-0, 2
9. Boston University, 222 10, 0-0-0, 2
10. University of Minnesota, 192 9, 0-0-0, 2
11. Michigan State University, 162 12, 0-0-0, 2
12. Princeton University, 111 NR, 0-0-0, 1
13. Clarkson University, 109 11, 0-0-0, 2
14. University of Wisconsin, 82 13, 0-0-0, 2
15. St. Cloud State University, 66 15, 0-0-0, 2

The Maine hockey team officially opens practice at 7 p.m. Saturday with its annual Blue-White game at Alfond Arena. The Blue-White game will include player introductions, an intrasquad scrimmage and a shootout contest.

***

While Jeff Dimmen begins his sophomore season with the Black Bears, his sister will help make history at Syracuse University. Kelly Dimmen plays defense for the Orange women's hockey team, which opened its first season Wednesday with a 4-3 loss to Colgate.

***

If you didn't get a chance to see Nathan Gerbe play for Boston College last season, he'll be in Maine for the start of the American Hockey League season. Gerbe, a Hobey Baker Award finalist who helped BC win the national championship in April, was one of eight players the Buffalo Sabres assigned Friday to the Portland Pirates.

To put the Hockey East Conference in perspective, consider that in 1984:

- Tim Army, the coach at Providence College, was Hockey East's leading scorer with 60 points in the league's inaugural season.

- Seven teams made up Hockey East: Boston College, Boston University, Maine, UMass-Lowell, New Hampshire, Northeastern and Providence.

- Only one player on the University of Maine roster was born in or before 1984, forward Jeff Marshall.

Those were the words of Bob Johnson, the late Wisconsin hockey coach, and that statement was evident this afternoon when the University of Maine men's hockey team took the ice at Alfond Arena for its annual media day.

Clad in navy-blue road uniforms, this year's Black Bears posed for the obligatory team photo, then took a few laps and a few slapshots on the ice at the Alfond.

There were some light-hearted moments. While a camera was rolling, teammates came from behind and smothered the face of Gustav Nyquist with shaving cream. A few feet away, Will O'Neill put a microphone in the face of teammate Spencer Abbott, interviewing him for another television segment.

It seems the fun has begun.