The University of Maine men’s hockey team, coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 years, will have 20 games at Alfond Arena in the upcoming season. And season tickets have already sold out.
Alfond Arena, where the Black Bears went 13-2-2 last season, is currently undergoing a $45 million renovation.
Two 2023-24 Frozen Four teams, current national champ Denver (Jan. 3-4) from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and Hockey East rival Boston University (Nov. 15-16), will be visiting Alfond Arena for two-game series as will NCAA Tournament team and 2022-23 NCAA champ Quinnipiac (Oct. 18-19) from the ECAC.
In addition to Denver and Quinnipiac, UMaine’s other non-conference home games will be against American International College from Atlantic Hockey (Oct. 5) and third-year NCAA Division I program Stonehill (Dec. 7-8), which is an independent.
For the second straight year, UMaine will face Atlantic Hockey team Bentley at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland (Dec. 29).
UMaine will also entertain Army for an exhibition game on Oct. 12.
UMaine will play one non-conference series on the road when it visits Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from the ECAC on Nov. 30-Dec. 1.
RPI is UMaine head coach Ben Barr’s alma mater.
Barr said he is excited to have 20 home games “especially with how things are at the rink right now.
“It’s an awesome environment. It’s a fun place to play for us and our opponents. We have to make it as difficult a place to play as possible,” said Barr, who compiled a 23-12-2 record in his third season at the helm.
UMaine had 11 sellout crowds at its 17 Alfond Arena games this past season. UMaine assistant ticket manager Josh Daigle said they have sold out their allotted season tickets for the upcoming campaign and have 500-800 on a waiting list.
UMaine had a 37 percent increase in attendance last season, averaging 4,981 per game which represents 97.2 percent capacity.
“I know it’s tough to get a ticket. It’s pretty incredible to have that kind of support around here. Now it is up to us to continue to earn it,” said Barr.
He called his schedule “pretty challenging” and that it is “set up as well as it could be.”
The Oct. 5 game against AIC, which was 20-16-4 a year ago and played in its fourth Atlantic Hockey League title game in five years, losing to the Rochester Institute of Technology, 5-2, will kick off the schedule.
“AIC is always one of the top teams in that league,” said Barr.
Playing Army the following weekend enables the Black Bears to avoid going two weeks in between games with Quinnipiac coming in on Oct. 18-19.
“You usually try to have an exhibition for your first game but we couldn’t do that, schedule-wise. Fortunately, Army needed an exhibition game and was free the second week. You don’t want to play one game and not play for two weeks that time of year,” said Barr. “And we have a lot of military members up here so maybe we will have a military recognition night or something like that.”
Army was 10-23-2 last season.
Stonehill was 2-34 in its second Division I season but former Holy Cross head coach, Providence assistant and UConn interim head coach Dave Berard is the new coach so they will be dramatically improved, said Barr, who worked with Berard at Providence.
Bentley was 16-17-2 last season but UMaine needed two late third-period goals to beat the Falcons 3-2.
RPI was 10-23-4 including 4-1 and 6-3 losses in Orono but Barr said going to play at RPI “won’t be easy. They will be looking to have a better year than last year.”
And he said having Denver (32-9-3) and Quinnipiac (27-10-2) coming to Orono is special.
“We obviously have a lot of high-end teams from Hockey East come in here every year and the hockey is always really good. But to get two high-end non-conference teams like that is pretty cool, too,” said Barr. “It doesn’t always happen up here. It’s tough, geographically.”
UMaine hockey schedule
Oct. 5 – AIC, 7 p.m; 12 – Army (exhibition), 2 p.m.; 18 – Quinnipiac, 7 p.m.; 19 – Quinnipiac, 7 p.m.; 25 – at Northeastern, 7 p.m.; 26 – at Northeastern, 7 p.m.
Nov. 1 – Merrimack, 7 p.m.; 2 – Merrimack, 7 p.m.; 8 – at Boston College, 7 p.m.; 9 – at Boston College, 7 p.m.; 15 – Boston University, 7 p.m.; 16 – Boston University, 7 p.m.; 22 – at New Hampshire, to be determined; 30 – at RPI, 3 p.m.
Dec. 1 – at RPI 3 p.m.; 7 – Stonehill, 2 p.m.; 8 – Stonehill, 3 p.m.; 29 – Bentley, in Portland, 4 p.m.
Jan. 3 – Denver, 7 p.m.; 4 – Denver, 7 p.m.; 10 – at UMass Lowell, TBD; 11 – at UMass Lowell, TBD; 17 – UConn, 7 p.m., 18 – UConn, 7 p.m.; 31 – Northeastern, 7 p.m.
Feb. 2 – UMass, TDB; 7 – at Providence, TBD; 8 – at Providence, TBD; 14 – New Hampshire 7 p.m.; 15 – New Hampshire 7 p.m.; 22 – at UConn, TBD; 28 – Vermont, 7 p.m.
March 1 – Vermont, 7 p.m.; 7 – at UMass, TBD; 8 – at UMass, TBD
