The University of Maine hockey team’s roller-coaster season continued with a home split against ECAC team Colgate this past weekend.
The now 12th-ranked Black Bears have a 3-2-1 record heading into their first Hockey East games of the season. But the Black Bears have plenty of company when it comes to teams having an up-and-down early season.
That includes fifth-ranked Boston University, who UMaine will play on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 at the Alfond Arena in Orono.
The visiting Terriers are 3-3-1 and were ranked second in the preseason U.S. College Hockey Online poll.
Of the teams that occupied the top 14 spots in last week’s USCHO poll, 12 of them lost at least once this past weekend.
They compiled a record of 15-13.
The only two teams that didn’t lose were No.1-ranked Michigan State, which swept winless Northern Michigan, and No. 4 Penn State, which swept one-win Stonehill that is in just its fourth season in Division I.
And the Penn State wins were 3-2 and 4-2.
Seven of the top 10 teams in this week’s USA Hockey poll have at least two losses and six of the top 10 in the USCHO poll do.
UMaine split its two home games with Colgate, losing 3-2 on Friday night and rallying from a 2-0 deficit to earn a 3-2 overtime win on Saturday night.
The Saturday victory snapped a three-game winless drought (0-2-1).
The landscape of college hockey has changed dramatically.
First, like the other sports, the NCAA transfer portal has enabled players to change colleges on a yearly basis without having to sit out a year.
Secondly, this season, for the first time ever, players from Canada’s three Major Junior Leagues are eligible to play U.S. college hockey.
They hadn’t been allowed in previous years because they received financial stipends which made them professionals in the eyes of the NCAA.
But with student-athletes now able to receive money in addition to their scholarships, these Major Junior players are now allowed to play.
And there has been a significant adjustment for these players to U.S. college hockey, whose teams play half as many games as Major Junior but have much more practice time.
The players are also older and stronger.
Major Junior has an age limit (16-to-20).
UMaine head coach Ben Barr called college hockey a “crapshoot” with the influx of Major Junior players.
Nine of his 13 newcomers played Major Junior hockey.
“You just don’t know how these kids are going to do,” Barr said. “Some of them adjust really quickly and well and, for some of them, it’s going to take some time.”
He feels Michigan State, Michigan, Boston University and Quinnipiac are “really good and, after that, roll the dice.”
There has always been parity in Division I college hockey because most of the high draft picks only stay a year or two.
But now there is more parity than ever.
There were both positives and negatives to the weekend for Barr’s Black Bears.
To overcome a 2-0 deficit is a definite positive, especially coming off two losses and a 4-4 tie at Quinnipiac in which you squandered a 4-2 lead by allowing two extra-attacker goals over the final 2:36.
That shows character.
The third period and brief overtime period of Saturday night’s triumph represented the best spell of play for the Black Bears over the weekend.
There was a sense of urgency and desperation that produced freshman left wing Justin Poirier’s tying goal in the third period and junior center and transfer Max Scott’s overtime game-winner.
Poirier’s tying goal was a gift from the Alfond Arena gods as freshman defenseman Lukas Peterson’s dump-in into the offensive zone along the right wing boards took a wild bounce off the boards across to the middle of the ice and landed on Poirier’s stick.
The team’s leading goal scorer converted with a nifty move around Colgate goalie Andrew Takacs for his fifth goal of the season.
He is showing how he scored 94 goals in 126 games over his last two campaigns in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
Poirier was one of nine newcomers among the 19 skaters in the lineup after head coach Ben Barr had played 10 newcomers in Saturday’s game.
“It was a positive step for our work ethic, both games,” Barr said. “We held them to 15 shots in the first game. There wasn’t one guy out there who wasn’t working.”
Among the other positives included the play of senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt, who had two assists in each game and was impactful in all three zones while logging a ton of ice time.
He showed why he was the runnerup to Boston College’s Eamon Powell for Hockey East’s best defensive defenseman a year ago, and why he would have to be considered the front-runner to win it this season.
He never gets beat one-on-one, he is tenacious, he makes smart decisions with the puck and he has an offensive flair to his game.
“He does everything for you and he has throughout his career. He was outstanding,” Barr said about Holt, who the coach also called a “great leader.”
Holt was chosen Hockey East’s Defender of the Week.
The three freshmen defensemen who played both games — Jeremy Langlois, Peterson and Luke Coughlin — exhibited composure and the ability to skate the puck out of the defensive zone on their own.
“They were solid. They didn’t make a ton of mistakes or any crazy turnovers,” Barr said.
The fourth line of Oskar Komarov between Will Gerrior and Thomas Pichette continued to be effective on the forecheck with its physicality and tireless work ethic.
That line has produced four goals in six games with Komarov having two and Pichette and Gerrior notching one each. Pichette also has three assists.
Junior center and Brown University center Max Scott’s overtime game-winner was his first UMaine goal and junior right wing Charlie Russell earned his first point of the season with an assist on the play. Russell had seven goals and 19 assists a year ago for UMaine and was the team’s fifth-leading point-getter.
On the negative side, the Black Bears continue to take too many penalties and the penalty killing needs to get significantly better. Over the last four games, UMaine has given the opponents 21 power plays, including two five-minute majors, and has surrendered seven power play goals.
And second team All-American goalie Albin Boija didn’t play to his usual high standard, allowing five goals on 34 shots over the weekend.
None of the goals would be considered bad goals but all five were on initial shots, and Boija has made a habit of coming up with saves off high-percentage shots.
The Black Bears were without junior right winger Josh Nadeau (shoulder injury), who has averaged nearly a point per game with 76 points (30 goals, 46 assists) in 78 career games.
