- Several Mainers taken in QMJHL draft
- AHL approves sale and relocation of Portland Pirates to Springfield Hockey, LLC
- Dumont named Bowdoin head coach
- ECHL coming to Portland?
- Pirates leaving town with little warning
- Pirates leaving Maine for Springfield, Mass.
- Several UMaine recruits selected in USHL draft
- Pirates eliminated from AHL postseason
- Peters shuts out Pirates as Bears even series, 2-2
- Pirates take series lead on Flick’s 3OT winner
Southern Maine men’s hockey team ready for fresh start
- Updated: October 29, 2015
USM goaltender Kyle Shapiro will have plenty of competition in goal this season (PHOTO: Rosina Vacchiano)
For the Southern Maine coach, he’s itching to get on the ice with his team and get the 2015-2016 season underway.
“With Division III college hockey, there are a lot of restrictions on you by the NCAA,” Harding said. “Myself personally, I wanted to get out there and start working and teaching and doing things like that you know. Obviously we couldn’t do it. Now we have a very short window. Everybody is in the same boat to get their teams prepared.”
The Huskies ended last season with a 6-19-1 overall record and finished tied last in ECAC East with Skidmore with a 3-14-1 record. Harding was named interim coach after long-time head coach Jeff Beaney was fired midway through the season after a 1-10-0 start. Harding was named the program’s permanent head coach over the summer.
The Huskies will begin the year against Fitchburg State in the ICFCU Shootout in Fitchburg, Mass. on Friday before facing Worcester State on Saturday. They’ll enter conference play with home games against St. Michael’s and Norwich the following weekend.
Harding is taking a game-by-game approach, opting not to look too far down the schedule.
“At this point, we are worried about Fitchburg State, and more importantly I am worried about our team. We are trying to implement our systems. We want to get playing as a team. We are more worried about that than really any opponent at this time.”
For the Huskies, forward Todd Bannerman is returning for his senior year. He had four goals and five assists last season. Harding expects assistant captain Chad O’Brien to contribute after posting nine points (5g, 4a) during his junior season.
One area where Harding would like to see improvement is in the team’s offensive numbers. Southern Maine finished last season with only 35 goals, averaging just 1.34 goals per game.
“It basically kind of snowballed itself,” said Harding. “We couldn’t get to pucks at times because we didn’t have the foot speed. Hopefully, we are a little bit better. I still don’t think we are going to be a juggernaut, putting the pucks in the net, but hopefully we have one or two players emerge to be able to get more pucks to the net.”
One newcomer that Harding hopes provides some offense is former Bangor High School standout Parker Sanderson, who won the Travis Roy Award in 2013 as the best senior in Class A hockey. Sanderson played last season with St. Stephen County Aces of the Maritime Hockey League where he had seven goals and 20 assists in 47 games.
“I haven’t been very outspoken about this, but if there’s a young man from Maine who can play at this level we want him at Southern Maine. We want him on our team,” Harding said. “Parker is a young man coming out of Bangor (High School) that couldn’t play at Southern Maine (at the time), but he has done a tremendous job at honing his skills, improving his game. At this point, I expect him with his speed to be a good part of this program.”
Leading the defense for the Huskies will be team captain Pier-Michel Lapointe. He had two assists in 21 games last season. Also returning is senior Daniel Mattsson, who had a goal and seven assists as a junior.
Freshman Brandon Plourde, who had a goals and 16 assists with the Cochrane Crunch of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, is expected to offer a touch of goal-scoring on the blueline.
Sophomore Kyle Shapiro returns to the Huskies’ crease after going 4-19-0 with a 3.53GAA and a .902 save percentage. Matt Michals, who joined USM in January, appeared in three games where he went 2-0-1 with a 1.66GAA and .943 save percentage. He spent the first half of last year with the EHL’s Northern Cyclones where he had 2-1-0 record with a 2.30GAA and a .925 save percentage.
“We had an open competition,” Harding said. “Matt Michals did a good job last year for the short period of time he was here. He came in when I came in at the half year (mark). I was looking at him to be breathing down Kyle’s neck. We will find out, but competition is healthy. Obviously, you have to give Kyle credit. He had a heck of a season.”
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