The University of Maine women’s ice hockey team has been picked to finish seventh, tied with Vermont, in the Hockey East coaches’ preseason poll.
UConn, the 2024-25 regular season champion, has been selected to repeat.
The Huskies received five first-place votes and 86 total points.
Last year’s conference tournament champion Boston University was picked second with five first-place votes and 82 points.
Northeastern, 3-2 loser to BU in overtime in the tourney championship game, was third with 76 points followed by Boston College (64), Providence (61), New Hampshire (44), UMaine and Vermont (41), Holy Cross (27) and Merrimack (18).
Molly Engstrom’s Black Bears finished sixth a year ago with a 10-14-3 conference record. They were 11-21-3 overall.
They lost to third seed Boston College in the quarterfinals, 4-3.
UMaine, which scored just 65 goals in 35 games last season, has lost six of its top 10 point-getters from last season although it does return three of its top four scorers in Lily Fetch (8 goals, 7 assists), Mikayla Boarder (8 & 6) and Stephanie Jacob (7 & 6).
All three goalies are back in Kiia Lahtinen (6-16-1, 2.79 goals-against average, .909 save percentage), Julia Bachetti (4-5-2, 2.85, .901) and Madisyn Ryan. Ryan appeared in just two games.
Engstrom and her coaching staff have brought in nine freshmen.
The Black Bears have just two seniors along with eight juniors and seven sophomores.
They will play an exhibition game at New Hampshire on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. before opening the season at Quinnipiac on Sept. 26 and 27.
Quinnipiac was picked 10th in the USA Hockey preseason national poll.
