The University of Maine men’s hockey team will host Army in a 2 p.m. Saturday exhibition game at the Alfond Arena in Orono but UMaine fourth-year head coach Ben Barr isn’t treating it as an exhibition contest.
“We’re approaching it like another (regular season) game,” said Barr. “It’s not like we’re trying to figure out who we are. We want to play the right way and find a way to win the game.”
Barr said it’s not a game where everyone gets a chance to play and is happy.
“Our identity is being a hard, heavy and deep team and that’s what we’re looking to be on Saturday,” Barr said.
The Black Bears opened their season with a 6-0 win over Army’s Atlantic Hockey rival American International College (Mass.) last Saturday night.
Army lost its season-opener at Union (N.Y.) of the ECAC on Sunday, 4-3 in overtime.
The teams can dress extra players for the exhibition.
During regular season and playoff games, they are allowed to dress 19 skaters and three goalies via NCAA guidelines.
Barr said dressing extra players poses a challenge because they have to try to “stuff everyone on the bench.”
Barr noted that it is odd to schedule an exhibition game after having already played a regular season game but it was necessary.
“We didn’t want to go two weeks without playing a game and our schedule doesn’t line up with Canadian schools any more. We agreed to play AIC but that was the only time we could do it. That left the second weekend open and, luckily, Army had a hole in their schedule that weekend, too,” Barr said.
UMaine has an important home series on Oct. 18-19 against 2022-23 NCAA champion Quinnipiac.
Quinnipiac is currently ranked eighth in both major national polls while UMaine is 10th in one and 11th in the other.
UMaine had a stretch between the 2013-14 and 2018-19 seasons where it opened the season with an exhibition game against a Canadian college five times during that six-year span and the Black Bears opened with an exhibition against the University of Prince Edward Island at the outset of the 2022-23 campaign.
The Black Bears received four goals and six assists from the line of Nolan Renwick (2 goals, 2 assists), Taylor Makar (2 & 1) and Ross Mitton (0 & 3) in their win over AIC and goalie Albin Boija stopped all 17 shots he faced for his third career shutout.
Army returns four of its top five scorers off last year’s team which went 10-23-2 overall and 8-16-2 in Atlantic Hockey play.
This will be the 21st and final season for Army head coach Brian Riley, who owns the Atlantic Hockey record for most league Coach-of-the-Year honors with four.
He had been an assistant for 12 years at Army under his brother, Rob, and he had a two-year stint as the head coach at the Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Faribault, Minnesota.
Barr was a freshman and sophomore at Shattuck-St. Mary’s when Riley was there but never played for him.
“But I got to know him really well and he has been a really good friend and a mentor for me going on 30 years. He has been fantastic to me and it will be neat to have him up here for his final year. It is kind of special, personally, for me,” said Barr.
Barr said Riley does a good job and he expects a tough game.
“They’re a good team. They’re really aggressive,” said Barr.
Senior Joey Baez was the team’s leading score a year ago with 15 goals and 16 assists and he headlines the list of returnees. Brent Keefer (13 & 11), defenseman Mac Gadowsky (4 & 19) and Michael Sacco (6 & 16) were the Black Knights’ third, fourth and fifth-leading point-getters.
Returning goalie Evan Szary, who made 30 saves against Union, was 8-10-0 with a 3.26 goals-against average and .893 save percentage a year ago.
Army was picked to finish 10th among 11 teams in the Atlantic Hockey coaches’ preseason poll.
