The University of Maine’s hockey team couldn’t have asked for a more challenging series to end the regular season than this weekend’s two-game away set at the University of Massachusetts.
“We’re treating them like they’re playoff games,” said senior left wing Taylor Makar, who transferred to UMaine from UMass. “It’s going to be exciting and fun to play.”
While the Black Bears have already sewn up a top two finish in Hockey East, a first-round bye and quarterfinal round home game and an NCAA Tournament berth, the Minutemen are battling for a number of things.
The most important task for UMass is moving up the Pairwise Rankings, which emulate the NCAA Tournament committee’s selection process.
The Minutemen are currently 12th in the Pairwise, meaning they are on the bubble when it comes to an NCAA berth.
They are 18-12-4 overall and 9-9-4 in Hockey East which puts them in sixth place in the conference entering the final weekend of action.
UMaine is fourth in the Pairwise with its 21-6-5 and 13-4-5 records, respectively. The Black Bears are all but assured a second place conference finish, but have a tiny chance of passing Boston College for the top spot.
“We all want to get ramped up and get ourselves dialed in so we’re ready for the playoffs,” Makar added.
The six conference tournament champions earn automatic berths to the 16-team NCAA tournament and the other 10 spots go to at-large teams based on criteria used in the compilation of the Pairwise Rankings.
A selection committee makes the final decision.
Wins over UMaine would move UMass up the Pairwise Rankings and greatly enhance its chances of making the NCAA tournament as an at-large if it doesn’t win the conference tourney.
The Black Bears and Minutemen met on Feb. 2 in Orono with the Black Bears earning a hard-hitting 3-2 victory.
Since that game, both teams have gone 4-1-2.
UMaine and UMass will play at 7 p.m. on Friday and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Saturday will be seniors night in Amherst.
“It’s going to be really, really intense,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr, who is also a former UMass associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. “We’ll know what we’re made of if we can go in there and match their intensity.”
Barr called UMass “a really good team that’s going to be desperate playing at home.”
UMass is a higher-scoring team, averaging 3.41 goals per game compared to UMaine’s 3.25. UMass is tied for ninth in the country among 64 Division I teams while UMaine is 15th.
“So we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves this weekend,” Barr added. “It’s going to be a great challenge.”
UMass has the nation’s fifth-ranked power play (26.3 percent) while UMaine’s power play has come to life over the last three games, going 4-for-8 after snapping an 0-for-29 drought.
UMaine is better defensively, giving up 1.78 goals per game which is third lowest in the country while UMass has allowed 2.47 (18th).
UMaine swept UMass in Orono in the last regular season series a year ago, 2-1 and 4-3, and then shut out visiting New Hampshire 5-0 in their Hockey East quarterfinal game to earn its first trip to the Hockey East semifinals and NCAA Tournament since 2011-12.
“You want to win every game, obviously, and you want to play well. If you play well, you feel a lot better heading into the playoffs,” said Barr.
UMaine senior center and alternate captain Harrison Scott said they want to continue to “build our details” this weekend.
“It’s a bigger rink and we want to limit the odd-man rushes,” Scott said. “We’re going to have to play a simple game. We have to commit to our process.”
The Mullins Center ice sheet in Amherst is 10 feet wider than Alfond Arena.
“They’re a good team. They’re going to want some payback for how we played against them at home,” Scott said. “We’re just excited to go down there and play some hockey. Tune up for the playoffs and focus on the details.”
Interestingly, UMass has been better on the road (9-4-2) than it has been at home (7-6-2). UMaine has been better at home with a 14-2-3 mark but has a respectable 7-3-2 road record.
Both teams have regained an important forward to their lineups who missed the game in Orono.
Sophomore right wing Aydar Suniev is UMass’ second-leading scorer with 17 goals and 16 assists in 29 games and graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen has five goals and five assists in 16 games.
Scott is UMaine’s leading scorer with 31 points on 16 goals and 15 assists. Hockey East Player of the Month Makar has 27 points on 16 & 11. Sophomores Josh Nadeau (8-16-24), a right wing, and Frank Djurasevic (6 & 18), a defenseman, are tied for third and sophomore right wing Charlie Russell has 6-16-22.
Coach Greg Carvel’s Minutemen have been led by junior right wing Cole O’Hara (20-27-47), Suniev, sophomore left wing Jack Musa (16-15-31), senior center Lucas Mercuri (9-20-29) and freshman defenseman Francesco Dell’Elce (6-15-21).
A pair of sophomores will battle it out between the pipes with UMaine’s Albin Boija (20-6-5 record, 1.66 goals-against average, .931 save percentage) squaring off against UMass’ Michael Hrabal (16-10-4, 2.42, .924).
Boija, who has the nation’s second-lowest GAA and sixth-best save percentage, was the league’s Goaltender of the Month.
