The St. Dom’s graduates steered the Saints to an undefeated season in 1999.
ORONO – It’s been five years since the last time Derek Damon and Greg Moore were this close to a championship.

It may be too much to ask the St. Dom’s graduates to top that dream season of 1999, but considering the stage where they’ll be living their latest dream, they just might do that.

Led by their dynamic first line of Damon, Moore and Joey Dumais, the Saints became the first team in 26 years to finish the season undefeated with a dramatic 2-1 win in the state championship game over North Yarmouth Academy.

Damon, who in that game scored the game-winning goal in overtime, is still trying to figure out how the two of them got back together a half a decade later and are now within two games of an national championship.

“I always assumed that Greg would be here. My route here was a little bit tougher,” said the 23-year-old Damon, who graduated in 1999 and came to Orono via the Eastern Junior Hockey League. “Here we are and we have a chance to win a championship again.”

But Damon and Moore aren’t ones to relive past glories when even greater glory awaits them this week at the NCAA Frozen Four.

“We don’t talk that much about it, but we’ve joked about the championship we won there together and how great it would be to win another one at Maine,” said Moore, a Lisbon native who was a freshman when he and Damon skated together in 1999 and who came to the Black Bears via the U.S. National Development Program.

“It’s good to always have that mentality, to know what it’s like to be in a championship game,” Damon said. “Greg’s obviously won championships in world juniors, so he has it on a bigger scale than myself. But it’s going to be an exciting weekend for us.”

Just how exciting could depend largely on Damon and Moore, who skate on separate lines except on the power play.
Defense first
While Damon (31 points) and Moore (23) rank fourth and fifth respectively on the team in scoring, their play at the other end may be a determining factor against Boston College, which skates one of the most potent scoring lines in the nation in Tony Voce, Patrick Eaves and Ben Eaves.

Head coach Tim Whitehead demands that his forwards back-check aggressively and help out in the defensive zone, and Damon and Moore take their coach’s demands seriously.

“We’re always trying to get numbers back. We’ve always been told our defense carries into our offense,” Damon said. “Now, we just have to get things going right at the start of the game by establishing our forecheck. For us to be successful against BC, we’re going to have to put a lot of pressure on their defense, maybe cough up some turnovers and capitalize on those chances.”

“It’s been crucial to our success this year that our forwards have been very conscientious defensively, and Derek and Greg in particular have been two of our leaders in that area,” Whitehead said.

The coach expected as much from Moore when he first set foot on the campus in 2002. Damon, however, has steadily gained his trust in all aspects of the game.

“Derek has certainly emerged for us as an elite player,” Whitehead said. “He plays in every situation, power play, penalty kill, first and last minute of the game, and that’s quite an accomplishment for Derek. He’s come a long way. He’s always been a tremendous offensive talent, but he’s really improved his defensive game to the point where he’s a very strong defensive player for us.”

Moore, meanwhile, continued to build upon a great freshman campaign and developed into one of the top power forwards in Hockey East.

“He’s just been so consistent offensively and defensively,” Whitehead said. “He’s a physical presence. He continues to improve each year. He’s got that quick release on his wrist shot. I wish he’d use it more. But he will certainly score a lot of goals in his career here and, most importantly, he’ll play with a lot of heart.”
Power behind the power play
Damon and Moore have also been Maine’s leaders in one other crucial area, the power play. With a team-leading seven goals apiece on the man advantage, they’ll be counted on to spark a power play that struggled through the Eastern Region.

“It’s just a matter of getting a couple of lucky bounces here or there and focusing more on the game plan,” Moore said.

“We’re just not getting the bounces right now on the power play,” Damon said. “That happens. You’ve just got to stay focused and really concentrate on getting shots through and not getting them blocked. (In Albany), we got a lot of shots blocked and that really hurts the power play because they usually end up clearing the zone and you’ve got to start all over again.”

Maine can’t count on having too many chances to start over against BC, which boasts the second-ranked defense in the nation behind the Black Bears. But neither will the Black Bears be intimidated playing in the Eagles’ hometown.

“They’re a good defensive team,” said Moore, who celebrated his 20th birthday with a game-winning goal against Harvard in the Eastern Region semifinal. “Against any defensive team, the idea is to make sure you get the red line and get the puck deep and establish your forecheck and not have too many turnovers at the blue line. As long as we can stick to that and maybe crash the net for some goals, we should get something going.”

“It’s always a great atmosphere at the FleetCenter,” he added, “and it’s nice that it’s local this time for a couple of us.”

It’s not as close as the old Central Maine Civic Center, but it will more than suffice for a pair of Saints.