University of Maine men’s hockey head coach Ben Barr said there aren’t any easy games on their schedule as a result of the new landscape in Division I hockey.
Barr said with the inclusion of players from Canada’s three Major Junior leagues for the first time ever this season means that everybody is “going to be good.”
Major Junior players had previously been deemed ineligible by the NCAA because they received financial stipends.
“There are so many good players out there now,” Barr said. “You are going to see a lot of very talented players on teams you might not expect to see there all the time because so many players have become available to everybody.”
Barr led his Black Bears to a Hockey East tournament title last season, their first since 2004.
“Obviously our league is crazy hard, but I expect our first game of the year against Holy Cross to be every bit as hard as our last game of the year,” he added.
The Holy Cross Crusaders play in the Atlantic Hockey America Conference. UMaine kicks off the season against them in an Oct. 10-11 series.
UMaine’s schedule is a strange one this season in that the Black Bears will play 12 home games before the Christmas break and just five after it.
They play just one home game in January after six straight on the road.
“We were a little spoiled last year. We played quite a few non-conference games at home,” said Barr, who is entering his fifth season behind the Black Bear bench. “But it’s going to be pretty balanced this year. And the schedule is going to be as challenging as always.”
The Black Bears will have six non-conference home games and four on the road after having seven home games and two on the road last season.
They will play 24 Hockey East games with 12 at home and 12 on the road. The Dec. 10 game against UMass Lowell will be played at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland and is considered a home game.
The non-conference home games are against defending Atlantic Hockey America regular season champion Holy Cross, ECAC third-place finisher Colgate and Division I independent Lindenwood of Missouri with the road series being at 2023-24 NCAA champion Denver and 2022-23 champion Quinnipiac of Connecticut.
“We played Denver and Quinnipiac at home this past season and going there this season is going to be even more challenging,” Barr said. “Holy Cross is going to be a really good test for us to start the season and Colgate always has a good team.”
Fourth-year Division I program Lindenwood has a new coach in Keith Fisher who has spent the previous 13 seasons as an assistant and then associate head coach at Penn State, which earned the program’s first Frozen Four appearance this past season and beat UMaine 5-1 at the Allentown Regional.
“He did a great job at Penn State and also spent a long time at Princeton,” Barr pointed out.
The Black Bears have 13 newcomers, including nine from the Major Junior ranks.
Barr said you can expect a lot of turnover from year to year in college hockey as a result of the transfer portal and the availability of Major Junior players.
UMaine will be seeking a third straight NCAA tournament berth.
