The University of Maine’s hockey team, fresh off a pair of home wins over Holy Cross, will head out on the road for a pair of games against Quinnipiac in a battle of top 10 teams.
The Black Bears and Bobcats will play at the M & T Bank Arena in Hamden, Connecticut, this weekend.
UMaine, ranked seventh in both major polls, and No. 10 Quinnipiac will play at 7 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday. Both games are sold out.
“It’s going to be a completely different challenge for us,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “They are skilled, structured and they play hard. And these will be their first home games.”
UMaine is 2-0 to start the season, while Quinnipiac is 2-1.
Quinnipiac, which has made six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and won its first and only NCAA title in 2023, was the preseason favorite to win the ECAC regular season title in the coaches poll.
UMaine, which has earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, was picked fourth in the Hockey East coaches’ preseason poll.
The two teams have met 18 times dating back to 2012 and the Bobcats own a 9-8-1 advantage. Eight of the games have been decided by one goal.
“They’re really good,” Barr said. “We’re familiar with them and they’re familiar with us.”
UMaine has won four of the last six meetings including 2-1 and 6-5 (overtime) victories in Orono last October.
Both teams wound up in the Allentown Regional of the NCAA tournament last season in Pennsylvania and were ousted in the first round. UMaine lost to Penn State 5-1 and Quinnipiac was upended by UConn 4-1.
“They’re obviously a really, really strong opponent, having won a national championship a few years ago,” said UMaine senior left wing and co-captain Thomas Freel.
He called the Bobcats “super detailed” and said they have a lot of stick skills to go along with a great coaching staff and team culture.
“We have to take it up a notch from what we did last weekend and be physical, be detailed and give them our best,” Freel added.
Senior left wing Owen Fowler mentioned UMaine getting the better of Quinnipiac last year at home in Orono, and said the Bobcats would likely want to do the same to the Black Bears.
“So we have to bring our A-game,” Fowler said.
Fowler said the Black Bears have to reduce their turnovers because Quinnipiac will make you “pay more” for your mistakes than Holy Cross did.
Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold’s Bobcats have been on the nation’s best programs over the past seven seasons — there was no NCAA Tournament in 2019-20 due to COVID-19 — as they have compiled an overall record of 179-62-18 and have gone 108-31-13 in ECAC regular season play.
The Bobcats have returned nine of their top 15 scorers off last year’s 24-12-2 team, including leading point-getters Jeremy Wilmer (15 goals, 25 assists) and Mason Marcellus (10 & 28), but they did lose their top two goal scorers in Jack Ricketts (20) and Travis Treloar (16) along with three blue line regulars.
Both Bobcat goalies are back in Dylvan Silverstein (12-9-2, 2.25 goals-against average, .903 save percentage) and Matej Marinov (12-3, 1.75, .928).
UMaine senior defenseman Brandon Chabrier said it has become a great rivalry.
“They’ve had a really good team every year,” said Chabrier, who is from Bayville, New York, which is just 100 miles from Quinnipiac’s campus. “It’s going to be a fun battle and I’m going back closer to home, so a lot of family will be coming. It will be a good weekend.”
Charbrier, who had four assists in the Holy Cross series and is tied for the team scoring lead with freshmen Justin Poirier (3 goals, 1 assist) and Jaden Lipinski (2 & 2), scored the overtime game-winner in a 2-1 victory over the Bobcats in Hamden two seasons ago.
Freel (1 & 2) and Max Scott (0 & 3) each have three points. UMaine goalie Albin Boija has made 40 saves on 42 shots.
Senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt leads the Black Bears in career scoring against Quinnipiac with two goals and three assists.
Quinnipiac, which earned a 4-3 win at Boston College before splitting a pair of games at the Ice Breaker Tournament in Tempe, Arizona, has been led by Ethan Wyttenbach (2 & 2) with five other Bobcats registering three points apiece. Antonin Verreault has 2 goals and 1 assist while Aaron Schwartz, Markus Vidicek, Wilmer and Marcellus each have 1 & 2.
Quinnipiac lost to Alaska-Fairbanks 2-1 and beat Notre Dame 7-2 at the Ice Breaker.
Silverstein is 1-1 in his two starts with a 2.56 GAA and a .857 save percentage and Marinov stopped 23 of 25 shots in the win over Notre Dame.
Both teams have several newcomers with Major Junior Hockey League backgrounds. UMaine has nine and Quinnipiac has seven.
This is the first year players from Canada’s three Major Junior Hockey Leagues have been allowed to play U.S. college hockey because they had previously been deemed professionals by the NCAA for receiving financial stipends.
