When you have a much-anticipated, high-profile series between two nationally ranked teams, it doesn’t live up to expectations.
That certainly wasn’t the case with the scintillating University of Maine-Denver series this past weekend pitting the defending national champion and sixth-ranked Pioneers against UMaine’s No. 7 Black Bears.
The teams split a pair of 2-1 games with defensemen getting the game-winners: sophomore Cale Ashcroft from Denver with 20 seconds left in regulation on Friday night and UMaine senior co-captain David Breazeale early in the third period on Saturday.
Both were like NCAA Tournament playoff games. The intensity was palpable.
Saturday’s victory for UMaine was massive. Friday night’s loss for UMaine could have been demoralizing and carried over to Saturday’s game because the Black Bears deserved at least a tie if not a win in the first game.
UMaine had dominated the third period and the game-winning goal was a wrist shot from the point that glanced in off a UMaine shinguard. It was just the fourth shot on goal of the period for the Pioneers. UMaine had 11.
The Black Bears spotted Denver the game’s first goal in the first period on Saturday night but tied with 2.7 seconds remaining in the period and won it in the third.
UMaine came into the second game having lost its two previous games to Bentley in Portland and to Denver. The Black Bears were a tremendous amount of pressure on Saturday night. There was another sell-out crowd, and UMaine desperately needed a win over a highly-ranked opponent.
The pressure intensified Saturday night when Denver scored the first goal. It was obvious that Pioneers goalie Matt Davis was again going to be very difficult to beat.
But the Black Bears were relentless and played what was probably their best and most complete game of the season. Their tenacity and desire to get to the front of the Denver net resulted in a bunch of skirmishes.
Through two periods, they had a 39-11 shots on goal margin over a Denver team that entered the game having allowed an average of just under 25 shots on goal per game. If it wasn’t for Davis, UMaine would have taken a comfortable lead into the third period instead of being tied.
Once the Black Bears got the lead 4:51 into the final period, they turned in a solid defensive effort protecting the lead even thought Denver outshot the Black Bears 10-7 in the period.
They limited Denver’s high-percentage shots and sophomore goalie Albin Boija made the clutch save he needed with less than a minute remaining when he gloved 2023-24 Hobey Baker Award finalist Jack Devine’s wrist shot from between the face-off circles.
It was interesting that a series between two of the nation’s three highest-scoring teams, No. 1 Denver (4.0 goals per game) and No. 3 UMaine (3.88), produced only six goals between them.
But they are also two of the country’s best defensive teams as UMaine entered the series with the nation’s third-lowest goals-against average (1.76) while Denver was seventh (2.00).
Denver has the nation’s best power play (30.6 percent efficiency) and two of the three Pioneer goals came with the man-advantage. Their puck movement on the power play was impressive.
The key is that UMaine played with discipline and gave the Pioneers only three power play chances over the weekend.
UMaine had just five power play chances as the referees did a nice job allowing the players to decide the games by calling only the obvious penalties.
The Black Bears also got a quality performance from an unexpected source: sophomore defenseman Bodie Nobes.
Nobes had been a healthy scratch until making his 2024-25 debut against Denver on Friday night. He was rock solid and also got involved in the offense, putting four shots on goal and ringing a blistering slap shot off the crossbar on Saturday night.
Junior defenseman Luke Antonacci and Grayson Arnott had been struggling, so Nobes got the opportunity to play. Sophomores Jack Dalton and Liam Lesakowski joined Nobes in the lineup on Saturday.
All players go through some rough patches and Antonacci and Arnott will bounce back. This is why depth is so important.
Denver has won two of the last three national championships and three of the last seven. They were without head coach David Carle and All-American defenseman and first round NHL draft choice Zeev Buium, who led Team USA to a second straight World Junior (Under-20) Championship gold medal.
But UMaine was without graduate student co-captain and center Lynden Breen, who is recuperating from leg surgery and hopeful of a comeback later this season.
The Pioneers are the face of NCAA Division I college hockey. UMaine head coach Ben Barr aspires to return his program to elite status, to where it was in its heyday when it won two NCAA titles in seven years in 1993 and 1999 and went to 11 Frozen Fours in 20 years.
UMaine has already played against three of last year’s Frozen Four teams: Denver, Boston College and Boston University. The Black Bears went 2-3-1 in those six games. They were close to losing five of the six.
But they were competitive in all of them, which is a far cry from where the program has been since the 2011-12 NCAA Tournament team.
Last year’s UMaine team won 23 games and reached the Hockey East semifinals and NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign. But it wasn’t as deep as this year’s team.
UMaine has 15 Hockey East games left and none of them will be easy. They still have a long way to go to earn an NCAA Tournament berth, but they have put themselves in good position to do so.
This week, they enter another difficult test with an away series against No. 8 UMass Lowell. The Black Bears have scored only five goals in their last three games, and UMass Lowell is a good defensive team.
UMaine will have to get to the net front and make life uncomfortable for the River Hawk goalies — and every opposing goalie from here on in — while also playing stout team defense.
