After Saturday night’s come-from-behind 3-2 win over Bentley University in front of a sold out crowd of 6,291 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, University of Maine men’s hockey head coach Ben Barr was asked if prior to the season’s start, did he think it was possible for his team to go 10-3-1 in its first 14 games.
“I thought it was possible, but it would also be possible to go the opposite of that,” the third-year coach said.
UMaine is off to its best start since the 2006-07 team also started 10-3-1 en route to the school’s last Frozen Four berth.
Barr’s team was picked to finish ninth among 11 teams in the Hockey East preseason coaches poll and six of the Black Bears’ first 10 games were against three teams currently occupying the first three spots in the country in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll: Boston College (1), Boston University (2) and defending national champion Quinnipiac (3).
UMaine is eighth in the country.
UMaine beat and tied BC at home, lost two one-goal games at BU despite outshooting the Terriers 74-53 over the two games, and split a pair of games at Quinnipiac.
“It’s hard to find a way to win those games. I give the guys a lot of credit,” Barr said. “But there is a long ways to go.”
Barr is right. There is a long way to go with 20 games left, including 16 league games, and the team must keep improving. But the buzz is finally back and the hard-working Black Bears are giving the Alfond Arena Faithful some long-overdue excitement and hope.
The Black Bears will enter the Christmas break with a four-game winning streak in a nine-day span.
They used three power play goals and a Josh Nadeau hat trick to beat New Hampshire 5-2, while a season-high four second-period goals, three more in the third, a Bradly Nadeau hat trick and Victor Ostman’s 38 saves earned them an opportunistic 7-3 win over UConn. A gritty performance earned the Black Bears a hard-fought 3-1 victory at Union with Harrison Scott and Felix Trudeau scoring their second goals of the season, and, finally, they got a come-from-behind 3-2 triumph over Bentley in Portland last Saturday night.
Cole Hanson’s first goal of the season tied it with 7:12 remaining and Josh Nadeau’s 10th goal won it with 4:11 left to play.
The addition of the Nadeau brothers, who flank senior co-captain Lynden Breen on a high-powered line, has been a game changer.
The freshman brothers each have 10 goals and are tied for eighth in the country among players from 64 Division I schools in goals per game with .71. Josh Nadeau has 12 assists, so his 22 points in 14 games puts him third in the nation in points per game at 1.57.
Bradly, the younger of the brothers, has 11 assists for a 1.50 points per game average that is tied for sixth best.
Josh Nadeau’s six power play goals tie him for second in the country and Bradly’s four game-winning goals tie him for third.
If they each score at least five more goals over their last 20 games, it would give UMaine a pair of 15-plus goal scorers in the same season for the first time since the 2011-12 team, which was the last one to reach the Hockey East semifinals and earn an NCAA Tournament berth.
That 2011-12 team had four in Joey Diamond (25 goals), Spencer Abbott (21), Brian Flynn (18) and Matt Mangene (16).
There have been only four players with 15 or more goals since 2011-12.
Breen has been the only Black Bear to reach the 20-goal plateau since that 2011-12 season by scoring 21 a year ago, and he is having another outstanding year with five goals and 12 assists in 14 games.
The Breen line has combined for 48 points over the last 10 games. Josh Nadeau has a 10-game points streak with 8 goals and 10 assists, Bradly has 8 goals and 9 assists, and Breen has 4 & 9 in those 10 games. Bradly and Breen have had a point in nine of those 10 games.
Having such a line gives the team confidence and swagger. They know if they have a bad period or fall behind, they have a line that can score on any shift and get them back into the game.
They can create momentum on every shift even if they don’t score.
But you also need supplemental scoring to complement them in case they are shut down or have an off night, and that has been happening. UMaine now has 16 players who have scored at least one goal and 11 who have scored at least two.
The team has game-winning goals from six different players and 11 Black Bears have registered at least three assists.
UMaine is averaging 3.57 goals per game, compared with 2.56 last season. That is 10th best in the country.
UMaine is also 12th in goals-against at 2.43 thanks to second team All-Hockey East goaltender Victor Ostman, who has a 2.40 GAA and a .905 save percentage. And freshman and fellow Swede Albin Boija stopped 18 shots in the win over UNH in his first varsity start, which gives them depth at that critical position. Senior Connor Androlewicz is also a reliable backup.