WATERVILLE -- The roster shows the Colby men's hockey team lost the top four scorers from last year's New England Small College Athletic Conference regular season championship team. Head coach Jim Tortorella is making sure his team looks at that as four opportunities, not four gigantic holes that must be filled.

"You can make it bigger than it really is," Tortorella said Thursday, the final day of preparation before the Mules open the 2008-09 season with a game against UMass-Boston tonight at Alfond Rink. "We can make it a big deal, or we can understand that we need to react and execute with our actions the way we always have to generate quality scoring chances."

Gone are career 100-point scorers T.J. Kelley, Josh Reber and Arthur Fritch. Kelley (19 goals, 24 assists for 43 points) was the only 40-point scorer in the league, while Fritch, a defenseman, earned a tryout at the Boston Bruins training camp in September. Along with Joe Rothwell, the group combined for 44 of the team's 85 goals last season, and 123 of 234 total points.

But Tortorella's not buying it, nor is he letting his team.

"How do we generate scoring chances? What you hope is that you've got the type of players in any program on a regular basis that can (contribute)," said Tortorella, now in his 14th year behind the Colby bench.

Remaining, however, are a trio of underclassmen captains in Jeffrey Jarnot, Michael Belliveau and Matt Strickland. They've also got sophomores Billy Crinnion and Wil Hartigan, who grew up quickly last season as rookies while skating on the top lines and producing 10 goals and 24 points between them.

Tortorella plans to sprinkle in as many as a half-dozen freshmen tonight against UMass-Boston, too. He's anxious to see how they prepare for the college game, particularly with a quick turnaround before playing Babson at 3 p.m. Saturday, less than 24 hours later.

"First and foremost, it's in our preparation. How are you preparing mentally?" he said. "We have a lot of games (early), and we break the season down into four-game segments and we have objectives within each game. ... It's about habits. We need to form habits that allow us to compete and execute at the high level we want to compete at."

One player sure to contribute is sophomore netminder Cody McKinney. McKinney appeared in 23 games a year ago with a 2.21 goals against average and .923 save percentage -- among the best numbers in the league.

But Tortorella takes the same approach with the 15-game winner that he takes with his young forwards.

"It's the same thing as it is with the scoring -- I'm worried about people making a big thing about it," Tortorella said. "I've always said to our goalies that you only have one responsibility, and that's stopping the round black thing. That's it.

"Cody's balanced with that, such a balanced guy emotionally that he understands it's the only thing he has to do. He doesn't really think about it, and that's probably why he's able to do it so well."

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The Colby women's team opens its season tonight as well, hitting the road to face Amherst.

One year after surprising most with a trip to the NESCAC championship game, the Mules return their top six scorers from a year ago, including a pair of 18-goal scorers in Rebecca Julian and Laura Anning.

Senior Lacy Brown is back between the pipes as well, after posting a 1.70 GAA in 11 conference games in 2007-08.

Colby plays its first three games on the road before debuting at home on Dec. 3 against St. Anselm.

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648

tbarrett@centralmaine.com