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Guy Perron was smiling down on Alfond Arena on Sunday night.
The former two-time UMaine hockey captain, who died of pancreatic cancer in May, was memorialized at Sunday’s 7-3 Black Bear victory over the University of Connecticut at an energized Alfond Arena.
The win, coupled with the 5-2 Friday victory over archrival New Hampshire, catapulted UMaine to eighth in the country in both national polls (U.S. College Hockey Online and USA Hockey).
It gave UMaine an overall record of 8-3-1, which is the best 12-game start since the 2006-07 team went 8-3-1. That was the last Black Bear team to reach the Frozen Four.
This UMaine team epitomizes Perron.
It’s a small team, with 14 players under 6 feet tall and 13 players who are 180 pounds or lighter, but those players compensate through their toughness, skating ability, skill and tenacity.
That is just like the 5-foot-9, 161-pound Perron, who is tied for 17th on the school’s all-time scoring list with 146 points (62 goals, 84 assists) in 136 games.
Perron played the entire 200 feet. He was effective in all three zones and never stopped working. He was an in-your-face type of player who was constantly improving.
That’s what this team is made of.
Perron played on UMaine’s first of 18 NCAA Tournament teams as well as its first of 11 Frozen Four squads. One of the traits of his teams was they rarely got outworked and, on the occasion that they did get outworked or outplayed, they still found a way to win.
UMaine did that on Sunday against UConn.
The score was very misleading. UConn spent more time in UMaine’s offensive zone than virtually any other Black Bear opponent this season.
“They were good. They were the first hard, heavy, physical team we’ve played and they played really well. They were very aggressive all over the ice. They gave us some trouble,” said third-year head coach Ben Barr. “I don’t think they got what they deserved.”
But UMaine won a game that it hasn’t been capable of winning since the program’s demise began in the 2012-13 season. That’s because this team believes in itself and its ability to carve out wins under any circumstance.
It also has an All-Hockey East goaltender in Victor Ostman and a possible two-man rotation partner in fellow Swede Albin Boija, a freshman who made 18 saves in his first varsity start on Friday night against New Hampshire in front of a sellout crowd.
Most importantly, it has the freshman Nadeau brothers.
Josh Nadeau had three goals against New Hampshire and his younger brother, Bradly, made the passes to him that set up the three goals.
On Sunday night, it was Bradly with the hat trick on feeds from his brother.
They were chosen the Hockey East co-Rookies of the Week as Bradly had three goals and four assists and Josh had three goals and three assists in the two wins.
Their hand-eye-coordination, creativity, skill and hockey IQs are off the charts. Their connection is unique. They know where each other is at all times. And senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen is a perfect complement as the center of the line.
They lead the team in scoring with 19 points each as Bradly has 10 goals and 9 assists in 12 games while Josh has 7 & 12.
“They work extremely hard. What they’ve been able to do so far is pretty incredible,” Barr said.
The Nadeaus often stay after practice to work on their shots and other aspects of their games. But UMaine has a lot of players like that who continue to work after practice.
With the addition of the Nadeaus and the development of the other forwards, UMaine is now a team that can win games by being more opportunistic rather than being the team that outplays its opponent.
The Nadeaus are two of 13 players among the 19 skaters who dressed for the two games who are either freshmen or sophomores.
Barr has been a part of noteworthy transformations as an assistant coach at Union College, Providence and UMass. He recruited players who would lead those programs to national championships.
Building a program and a winning culture takes time and he said it is usually the third year when it starts to evolve.
The late Shawn Walsh’s first two seasons were losing campaigns before his third UMaine team reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
Barr said just because you establish a winning culture doesn’t guarantee that you are going to win.
“But it at least gets you in the ballgame. We still have two-thirds of the season to go. We may be in the ballgame today but it doesn’t mean we’re going to be in it next week. But the culture is there and that’s the most important piece,” Barr said.
And he was pleased they were able to get the win on Guy Perron Night.
“Guy touched a lot of Maine hockey fans. And he was involved in everything within the community,” Barr said. “Everywhere you go, you saw Guy Perron pins. And it’s not just related to University of Maine hockey.”
Perron was an assistant coach/associate head coach for the men’s team at UMaine and was also the women’s hockey head coach for two years. He was also heavily invested in the Junior Black Bears youth program.
“It was nice we were able to honor him in a special way Sunday night and have his whole family here,” said Barr, referring to Guy’s wife Renee, daughter Grace and sons Jack and Marc-Andre. “They are the nicest, kindest people around.”