For the second straight year, University of Maine hockey coach Ben Barr is the runner-up for Hockey East Coach of the Year.
He narrowly lost out to the University of Connecticut’s Mike Cavanaugh.
The league’s 11 coaches vote and you can’t vote for yourself.
Barr was also runner-up last year to Boston College coach Greg Brown, who was the third finalist this season.
You could make a legitimate case for both Barr and Cavanaugh. Either certainly would have deserved the honor this year.
As much as Barr would have been worthy of the recognition, so is former Bowdoin College football and hockey captain Cavanaugh, who is in his 12th season at UConn.
As conference coach of the year, Cavanaugh is sure to be a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award, which goes to the nation’s top Division I coach. Barr would also be a Penrose finalist if he gets UMaine to the Frozen Four in St. Louis.
UMaine was picked fourth in the Hockey East coaches’ preseason poll and finished second, while UConn was chosen eighth and wound up fourth.
UConn finished eighth in the conference a year ago and UMaine was third.
UConn went 2-0-1 against UMaine this season including a win and a tie in Orono.
UMaine is 22-7-6 and was 13-5-6 in conference play while UConn is 21-10-4 and was 12-8-4.
Barr had to replace All-Hockey East winger and 2023-24 leading scorer Bradly Nadeau and he lost third-leading returning scorer and co-captain Lynden Breen for 16 games due to a broken leg. Cavanaugh had to replace his top two scorers and his goaltenders.
UMaine is third in the Pairwise Rankings which emulate the NCAA Tournament selection process, while UConn is a program-high seventh in those rankings.
Both will play in Thursday’s Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden. UConn is taking on Boston University at 4 p.m. and UMaine is facing Northeastern at 7:30.
Both will be in the NCAA Tournament and it will mark the first time ever for UConn.
It will be the 20th NCAA appearance for UMaine.
The bottom line is these are two of the best coaches in the country and each school is fortunate to have them behind the bench.
Each has overcome obstacles to elevate their programs into national championship contenders.
Barr has had to overcome the geographic disadvantages and a long stretch of bottom-half finishes to rebuild a program that had averaged a seventh place finish in the 15 years leading up to his arrival four years ago.
He improved his teams by eight wins in each of his second and third seasons, and the Black Bears’ current record is the best since the 2003-04 team went 33-8-3.
Cavanaugh coaches at a school where its men’s and basketball teams are perennial national championship contenders and overshadow his hockey program.
Barr, like Cavanaugh, would surely prefer a national championship to a coach’s award.
Barr has recruited players for three national championship teams at Union, Providence and UMass.
His current team has just one National Hockey League draft pick in senior left wing Taylor Makar (7th round, Colorado).
UConn has three sixth-round picks.
UConn has four players who were chosen to the All-Hockey East teams (first, second, third and All-Rookie) and UMaine has two.
So you can certainly make the point that Barr has done more with less. UMaine also has a more grueling travel schedule.
The Cavanaugh boosters would likely say UMaine has the best home ice advantage in college hockey, which helped the Black Bears go 15-2-3 at Alfond Arena.
Wouldn’t it be fitting if these coaches and their teams met in the Hockey East final and/or the NCAA Tournament?
