For the second straight year, University of Maine hockey coach Ben Barr is a finalist for Hockey East Coach of the Year.
The 43-year-old Faribault, Minn. native, who is in his fourth season behind the bench for the Black Bears, was a close runnerup to Boston College’s Greg Brown last season.
Brown and University of Connecticut head coach Mike Cavanaugh are the other finalists.
The finalists for Player of the Year are Boston College right wing Ryan Leonard and goalie Jacob Fowler, both sophomores, and UMass junior right wing Cole O’Hara.
The Rookie of the Year finalists are Boston College center James Hagens, Boston University defenseman Cole Hutson and Vermont left wing Colin Kessler.
The winners will be announced on Wednesday morning.
UMaine was picked fourth in the Hockey East Coaches’ preseason poll but wound up finishing second behind Boston College with a 13-5-6 conference record to go with a 22-7-6 overall record.
Its overall winning percentage of .714 is the best since the 2003-04 team went 33-8-3 (.784).
Three of their losses were by one goal and two others were by two goals because the opponent scored an empty-net goal.
UMaine lost back-to-back games just twice and never lost more than two in a row.
Despite having just two All-Hockey East selections in sophomore goalie Albin Boija (second team) and junior defenseman Brandon Holt (third) and not having anyone in the top 50 in the country in points per game, Barr’s Black Bears have won with depth, work ethic and defense.
UMaine has seven players with 20 or more points and has allowed only 1.86 goals per game, third best in the country among 64 Division I schools.
They had the nation’s 10th-best penalty-killing percentage (84.3) and they were 15th in goals scored with an average of 3.26 per game.
UMaine has reached the Hockey East semifinals for the second straight year after not making them since the 2011-12 season.
UMaine, with just one NHL draft pick, is third in the Pairwise Rankings that emulate the NCAA Tournament selection process and fourth in both national polls.
The Black Bears will take on Northeastern in Thursday night’s 7:30 p.m. Hockey East semifinal at the TD Garden in Boston.
Brown led the Boston College Eagles to the Hockey East regular season championship and his squad has been the No. 1 team in the country for several weeks, although it fell to second behind Michigan State in the two national polls after losing to Northeastern 3-1 in their semifinal on Saturday.
Boston College went 18-4-2 in Hockey East play.
Bowdoin College graduate Cavanaugh and his UConn Huskies were picked to finish eighth in the Hockey East preseason poll but wound up fourth and will face Boston University in Thursday’s 4 p.m. Hockey East semifinal.
The Huskies are currently 21-10-4 overall and finished at 12-8-4 in Hockey East during the regular season.
