One game or two?

It would seem to be the scheduling norm - play a pair of games during the course of a weekend. But for the past two weeks, the University of Maine ice hockey team has had a pair of one-game weekends, last Friday's 4-1 win over No. 15 Vermont and Sunday's game at home against Boston University, ranked fifth and seventh in the two national polls.

One would think that playing only one game would disturb the rhythm of the team. In that vein, Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said he'd rather take two games a weekend, for continuity's sake.

"Morale has been good," said Whitehead, whose team has nine days between games. "But we wish we had more games after that. After you win one, you want to play more."

But, Whitehead added, "Every day's been real upbeat. We've talked about how good of a game it was, but that it's still one game. We have to build off it."

Kevin Swallow, however, liked the idea of having a one-game weekend.

"It's kind of nice to have one game a weekend," the senior forward said. "This week has been a lot about preparing. Morale's been great this week. The guys are happy to be at the rink this week and they're happy to be working hard, knowing the rewards. That will really help us."

Maine has two more single-game weekends on its Hockey East schedule this season: Dec. 12 at home against Northeastern and Jan. 9 at home against Merrimack.

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The Black Bears are fourth in the nation on the power play at 27.7, behind Harvard (66.7 percent), Colorado College (32.4 percent) and Massachusetts (30.6 percent).

Don't let Harvard's number deceive you - Harvard has played one game and killed off two of three penalties in a 5-3 win at Dartmouth.

Maine will face Boston University's penalty-killing unit, which is seventh in the nation (89.7 percent) and first in Hockey East.

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Maine took Thursday off and will practice Friday and Saturday in preparation for Boston U.  While they're the defending national champions, there's a different look about the Terriers, who lost eight players from last year's team either to graduation or to the NHL - or both, in the case of Matt Gilroy, a defenseman who now plays for the New York Rangers.