The University of Maine Black Bears will square off against Penn State on Friday night in the Allentown Regional of the NCAA men’s hockey tournament. UMaine is the top seed in the regional bracket, and Penn State is fourth.
The puck is scheduled to drop at 8:30 p.m. at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Here are five factors that could decide the game between the 24-7-6 Black Bears and 20-13-4 Nittany Lions.
Penn State’s blistering offense
The Nittany Lions are ranked seventh in the country in scoring with 3.51 goals per game. UMaine is 14th with its 3.32 goals per game average.
Penn State is led by their first ever Hobey Baker Award finalist in sophomore right wing Aiden Fink, who has 23 goals and 29 assists and is second in the country in points per game (1.41).
He was chosen to the All-Big Ten first team and second-leading scorer Charlie Cerrato (15 & 22) was selected to the All-Rookie team. Fink is on a line with Big Ten honorable mention Reese Laubach (15 & 15) and Danny Dzhaniyev (12 & 18).
The Nittany Lions offense will be a significant test for Maine’s stingy defense, which entered the Allentown regional giving up just 1.89 goals per game. That’s the third-best mark among all 64 Division I teams across the country.
“They’re really good with the puck,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “They play really up-tempo. They have some guys who can make plays.”
He stressed that the Black Bears will need to take care of the puck, get pucks in deep, forecheck well and clear their defensive zone efficiently.
UMaine goalie making his first NCAA tourney start
University of Maine sophomore goalie Albin Boija will make his NCAA tournament debut a year later than expected on Friday night when the Black Bears face Penn State in their first round game as part of the Allentown Regional.
Boija was scheduled to start the Springfield Regional game against Cornell last season but became ill and couldn’t play.
The Hockey East Tournament MVP takes a 23-7-6 record, a 1.76 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage into Friday night’s game.
Boija has the nation’s fifth-lowest GAA among goalies at the 64 Division I schools and eighth-best save percentage. He is a finalist for the Mike Richter Award, which goes to the nation’s top Division I goaltender.
“Having him in net is such a relief,” said UMaine graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen. “He keeps us in games. We have his back and he has our backs.”
The Black Bears’ balanced attack
A key to UMaine’s Hockey East tournament championship run was the team’s balanced scoring.
Sixteen players registered at least a goal or an assist in UMaine’s playoff wins over UMass Lowell (7-1), Northeastern (4-3 in double overtime) and UConn (5-2).
Thirteen players notched at least two points in the three games, and 11 scored at least one goal with five producing two goals apiece.
Seven players had at least three points and the Black Bears had a player on all four lines with at least a goal.
“Everyone is feeling good right now. The puck is going in the net. Our offense is generating,” said senior center and alternate-captain Harrison Scott Scott. “It comes back to our details and just playing the game from the [defensive] zone out and being relentless over pucks.”
A home environment for the Nittany Lions
The Black Bears go to Allentown as the top regional but have to play the host school in Penn State.
It will essentially be a home ice advantage for the Nittany Lions, whose campus is 166 miles from Allentown.
Not much of a reward for leading the region but, as Barr said on Sunday, “it is what it is.”
UMaine fans will be required to make a 547-mile trip one way to support the Black Bears. That is sure to make for a different environment than the Hockey East semifinal and championship game, when Black Bear fans took over the TD Garden and made it feel like a home venue for UMaine.
But it could have been worse.
The other two regionals are in Toledo, Ohio, which is a 988-mile trip, and Fargo, North Dakota, which is 1,859 miles from Orono.
In every NCAA tournament, teams have to play the hand they’re dealt. They control their own destiny with how they play.
UMaine’s valuable experience on the big stage
Last year, the Black Bears lost to Boston University 4-1 in the Hockey East semifinal and to Cornell 3-1 in the first round of the Springfield Regional of the NCAA tournament.
But in the process, they gained some valuable experience in that kind of playoff atmosphere, and it paid off last week when they claimed their first Hockey East tournament championship since 2004.
UMaine senior center and alternate captain Nolan Renwick said it has been “extremely valuable” playing in those four playoff games at neutral sites the past two years.
“Playing in those games, especially at the Garden in front of 17,000 fans, helps you get comfortable in those high-pressure situations where everything is on the line,” said Renwick. “You have to be able to stay calm and stay composed in those situations.”
Penn State has played on the big stage as well in recent years. The Nittany Lions almost earned their first Frozen Four appearance in the 2022-23 season but lost to Big Ten rival Michigan in overtime in the regional final.
