The University of Maine men’s hockey schedule is now available for the coming season, though it has yet to be officially released by the school.
The schedule was first reported by Eastern Maine Sports on Monday. A UMaine athletics official confirmed to the Bangor Daily News that the reported schedule is accurate at this point, pending unresolved game contracts.
UMaine will open the season by hosting reigning Atlantic Hockey America regular season champion Holy Cross on Oct. 10-11. The Black Bears will play Colgate on Homecoming weekend on Oct. 24-25 and Lindenwood University on Dec. 13-14.
UMaine will open its 24-game Hockey East schedule by hosting NCAA runnerup Boston University on Oct. 31, Nov. 1. Arch-rival University of New Hampshire will be in Orono for a two-game series Dec. 5-6.
College hockey teams typically enter into game contracts with their opponents that outline terms for game details like team travel and accommodations, cancelation dates, responsibility for providing officials, and the allocation of game proceeds.
Schools may also enter into contracts with outside facilities that host games. UMaine will formally release its schedule once the unresolved contracts are finalized, the athletic department official said.
UMaine will travel for two-game series against two of Division I college hockey’s elite programs, Quinnipiac University and the University of Denver, as part of its 10 non-conference games. The Black Bears will also host Colgate from the ECAC, Holy Cross from Atlantic Hockey America and Division I independent Lindenwood from Saint Charles, Mo.
Lindenwood is in its fourth season as a Division I program after moving up from club status and will be playing UMaine for the first time.
ECAC powerhouse Quinnipiac, which has earned six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and won its first NCAA title in 2022-23, will entertain the Black Bears on Oct. 17-18 and Denver, which has averaged 31 wins the past four seasons and won national championships in 2023-24 and 2021-22, will host UMaine on Jan. 2-3.
UMaine swept Quinnipiac at Alfond Arena 2-1 and 6-5 in overtime last season and split 2-1 games with visiting Denver.
Quinnipiac was 24-12-2 last season. The Bobcats won the ECAC regular season title before losing to Cornell, 3-2 in overtime, in the ECAC tournament semifinals and to UConn, 4-1, in the NCAA’s Allentown Regional.
Rand Pecknold’s Quinnipiac team has gone 117-33-10 over the last four seasons.
Denver has reached the Frozen Four three times over the past four seasons. David Carle’s Pioneers went 31-12-1 last season, losing to National Collegiate Hockey Conference rival and eventual national champion Western Michigan 3-2 in double overtime in their Frozen Four semifinal.
UMaine is 12-9-1 all-time against Quinnipiac and 12-10 vs. Denver.
UMaine went 24-8-6 a year ago and won the Hockey East Tournament title for the first time since the 2003-04 season. UMaine also earned its second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and that’s the first time th Black Bears have done that since the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.
UMaine lost to Penn State 5-1 in the first round of the Allentown (Pa.) Regional.
This season, the Black Bears will play Boston University, Providence College, Vermont and UMass Lowell three times each and the other six Hockey East schools twice apiece.
UMaine is slated to play UMass Lowell in a Hockey East game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Wednesday, Dec. 10.
The Black Bears’ series against Holy Cross from Worcester, Mass. will be the first time the schools have met since the Black Bear shut out the Crusaders 7-0 on Oct. 18, 2003.
UMaine holds a 4-2 lead in the all-time series.
Holy Cross is coming off a 24-14-2 campaign, 19-5-2 in Atlantic Hockey America. Holy Cross lost to Bentley 6-3 in the AHA tournament championship game.
The Crusaders went 21-14-4 two years ago.
Colgate went 18-15-3 overall and, for the second straight season, went 13-7-2 in league play.
UMaine and Colgate have met four times over the past three seasons and each posted a win and tie in its home series.
Colgate leads the all-time series 8-6-4.
Lindenwood went 8-22-2 a year ago including road wins over Wisconsin, Nebraska-Omaha and Notre Dame. Eleven of the Lions’ losses were by one goal.
In Hockey East play, UMaine will travel for two-game series against UMass (Nov. 6-7), Boston College (Nov. 21-22), Providence (Jan. 9-10), UMass Lowell (Jan. 23-14) and Northeastern (Feb. 27-28) and one game at BU (Feb. 6) and at Vermont (March 7).
The Black Bears will host two-game series against BU (Oct. 31, Nov.1), Vermont (Nov. 14-15), New Hampshire (Dec. 5-6), UConn (Feb. 13-14) and Merrimack (Feb.20-21) and single games with Providence (Jan. 31) and the Portland game against UMass Lowell (Dec. 10).
UMaine will return seven of its top 10 scorers off last year’s team although top two point-getters Harrison Scott (18 goals, 17 assists) and Taylor Makar (18 & 12) have departed.
UMaine will return a veteran defense corps and All-Hockey East second team goalie Albin Boija.
The Black Bears will have 13 newcomers including five National Hockey League draft choices.
