Following the first intermission of Saturday’s Battle of the Bears at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, the University of Maine players casually skated in preparation for the second period/

In the middle of the Black Bear parade of alumni was Crowder, standing out in his black and gold Bruins jersey.

“A lot of those guys I haven’t seen in 20 years,” Crowder said. “I coached a lot of them at Maine in the late 80’s, guys like Eric Weinrich and Bob Corkum. It was just fun.”

Crowder was chatting it up with  Weinrich and was given — appropriately enough — a bear hug from Steve Smyth from behind. Smyth’s wife used to babysit Crowder’s kids in Orono during his four-year coaching stint with the Black Bears.

“I hadn’t seen Eric in a long time,” Crowder said. “We coached in Portland together for a year way back seven or eight years ago. I hadn’t seen him since then. I know his brother and that whole family from way back.”

Saturday’s Battle of the Bears charity hockey game was a reunion for players from both teams and rekindled memories — and not just for the fans.

The Black Bears won the game 8-6 in front of a small crowd. The event raised money for the Maine State Troopers, UMaine hockey and the Portland Boxing Club.

When Crowder, who lives in Nashua, N.H., heard about the event, he jumped at the chance.

“It was a lot of fun,” Crowder said. “I know almost all of the guys that played. Between my years there or through coaching or losing recruiting battles to some of them along the way, there’s a lot of happy and fun memories with them.”

Weinrich was playing for the Black Bears but had a lot of ties to players on the Bruins roster, which included Rick Middleton, Ray Bourque, Bob Sweeney and Ken Linseman.

“Almost all of those guys I played against and a few of them I played with,” Weinrich said of the Bruins. “Hockey guys are just great guys. It doesn’t matter when they played.”

The Black Bears lineup featured notables Corkum, Cal Ingraham, Chris Imes, Dave Capuano and Niko Dimitrakos.

“It was great,”  said Weinrich, who also had his brother Jason as a teammate. “It doesn’t matter if you played with guys or not. It’s like you’re a big family out there. I thought it was a great tribute to the team and the alumni that everybody showed up for this. There was a great crowd, and the Bruins guys are just awesome. They do a lot of great stuff.”

Dimitrakos was the star of the game. He scored two goals and had two assists. Half of those points came during a stretch in the second period that opened an 8-3 lead.

“It’s good to be back here with all the guys again,” Dimitrakos said. “It brings back a lot of memories. I had a lot of fun this weekend.”

Dimitrakos has recently stepped away from hockey to start a cabinet business. His company was one of the event sponsors, and he decided to play just two weeks ago.

“I haven’t skated since December or January,” Dimitrakos said. “I’m just coming off knee surgery. I just wanted to get out there and get a sweat going. The first couple of shifts, I felt like I was going to throw up, but I could only imagine how some of the other guys felt.”

Ten of the Bruins’ players who were advertised as attending missed the event, including marquee names like Terry O’Reilly, Brad Park and Lyndon Byers. Only a few of the former Black Bears — Chris and Peter Ferrraro and Guy Perron — were on the original roster but not there Saturday.

UMaine scored the first goal of the game from  Corkum. The Bruins came back with three straight. Bruce Shoebottom netted the first one from the slot. Then Crowder finished off a nice pass from Linseman. That line of Crowder, Linseman and Andy Brickley scored again for the 3-1 lead.

“You could rub it in,” Crowder said. “We had that one shift where we scored two goals. I was giving it to (Coach) Frank Jordan because I thought he’d put the checking line out against us.”

UMaine got back on the board on a Jeff Libby goal. Dimitrakos tied it late in the period and Ben Guite, who didn’t even have a jersey with his name on it, scored with 3:33 left for the Black Bear lead.

UMaine scored four straight to open the second 30-minute period. The Bruins looked gassed and the Black Bears had a little more jump in their skates.

“I knew it was going to be tough sledding,” Crowder said. “I think our break between periods was a little too long. The oil wasn’t getting down to where it needed to get down to to get the joints going.”

The line of Dimitrakos, Guite and Kent Salfi scored the first two. Then Erin Fenton stuffed one inside the left post. Dan Kerluke scored to make it 8-3.  Goalie Mike Morrison replaced Blair Allison in goal in the second period and blanked the Bruins until Crowder scored with 5:06 left. Tim Sweeney and Dan Lacouture added Bruins goals late to close the gap.

Guite was the game’s second star with a goal and two assists. Linseman was the third star with a goal and an assist.

“I love getting on the ice,” Weinrich said. “I don’t do it enough. Just to see guys like Ray Bourque and Rick Middleton and all my heroes growing up, you can see how great there were because they can still do it.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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