Maine is no vacationland for men's hockey

Author: Jeff Patterson

At the beginning of the year, Men's Hockey Coach Bill Beaney admitted that this year's schedule, which alternates every year from playing teams at home and on the road, was the more difficult one. "A lot of the traditionally toughest teams are away," he said, citing "the Maine trip" as an example because, "the last time we had two games up at Maine we lost both of them."

At the time, Beaney was referring to the challenge of playing NESCAC rivals Colby and Bowdoin in January, but on Friday night the University of Southern Maine proved to be equally as tough. The Huskies used both a power failure and a surging power play to beat Middlebury 2-0 in Gorham. It was the first time the Panthers were shut out in 684 days - the last one coming in a 2-0 loss to Colby.

In just over 48 minutes of hockey, the Panthers wracked up 27 penalty minutes to Southern Maine's ten, and they paid the price. Bobby Siers scored on a five on four in the first period and Mark Carragher scored on a four on three in the second. The Panthers had no answers.

Southern Maine goalie David Beckles made 19 saves in the victory as he shut down and shut out the visitors. "He had some big saves," said Shane Mandes '10. "We just weren't burying it."

Beckles' counterpart, Doug Raeder '09, who made 14 saves in the loss, had similar praise for the opposing netminder: "He had a real good game," he said. "We just couldn't find the back of [his] net."

The Huskies stole the Panthers' thunder - Middlebury came into the game after a 7-1 thrashing of Potsdam - and a thunderstorm stole USM Ice Arena's electricity, causing the game to be called with 11:59 to play. The game was put on ice for 30 minutes until both coaches decided to end the game prematurely.

"There was some talk that [the rink] wasn't going to be ready for an hour, so the coaches had a meeting with the refs and they just decided to go with whoever was up," said Raeder. "It was weird, a guy took a shot and [the lights] went out and they came back on and they went out again," said Raeder. "There was just silence. We just stopped and went to our benches."

As a result, the Panthers had to pine away in defeat as they rode the pine in the Pine Tree state. It was the Panthers second loss of the season - something unusual this early in the year. Last year, the team lost two games all season. To put it in perspective, the last time the men's team has lost twice this early in the season was 2002, before any of the current players were enrolled. That year was also the last time the men's team did not win a national championship.

Still, the resiliency of this team should keep fans confident that the familiar blue jerseys will be buzzing around Kenyon Arena in March. Middlebury came back on Saturday and handily handed Salem State a 5-0 loss.

"It was a big turnaround for us. Hopefully it is the start of something new," said Raeder.

"It was huge," added Mandes. "Not just the win, but the way [the team] played. We got the energy and the hard work back - the roots of Middlebury hockey…we got the jump back in our step."

The Panthers out-shot the Vikings 56-18, taking advantage of 17 Salem State penalties. Ross Cherry '08 recorded his sixth career shutout and Mickey Gilchrist '08 scored a hat trick to reach the 50-goal plateau in his career. With each feat, both are stepping up higher and higher in the record books.

Gilchrist's first strike came when he batted the puck, which was two feet off of the ice, into the net. Number two went top-shelf on a penalty kill mission and number 50 came after he, according to Raeder, "walked around like three people and shoved it in."

"Every single goal was absolutely sick," said Reader, who oohed and ahhed from the sidelines. "It was good old Mickey Gilchrist."

This Friday, the Panthers will take on Plattsburgh State at Stafford Ice Arena in N.Y. Middlebury will be looking to avenge an earlier 4-2 defeat to the Cardinals, which came on neutral ice at the PrimeLink Shoot Out. Recently Plattsburgh tied Oswego, the number two ranked team in the country, 5-5, on Dec. 2.