The University of Maine men’s hockey team, coming off a 4-1 loss to Boston University in the Hockey East semifinals, will travel to Springfield, Mass., to take on Cornell University in the NCAA tournament Regional at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
UMaine, a second seed, is 23-11-2 while third seed and ECAC tournament champion Cornell is 21-6-6.
The other game in the regional at the MassMutual Center will see top-seed and National Collegiate Hockey Conference tourney winner Denver, 28-9-3, face off at 2 p.m. against fourth seed Hockey East semifinalist UMass, 20-13-3.
The winners will play at 4 p.m. on Saturday for the right to play in the Frozen Four at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn., April 11-13.
In the other Thursday regional in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Hockey East runner-up Boston University, 26-9-2, will take on Atlantic Hockey champion Rochester Institute of Technology at 5 p.m. and Big Ten representative Minnesota, 22-10-5 will meet NCHC runner-up Omaha, 23-12-4, at 8:30 p.m. The regional final will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
The other two regionals will be Friday-Sunday affairs.
In Providence, top seed Boston College, 31-5-1 and the Hockey East regular season and tournament champ, will play Central Collegiate Hockey Association champ Michigan Tech, 19-14-6, at 2 p.m., and the Big Ten’s Wisconsin Badgers, 26-11-2, will square off at 5:30 p.m. with defending national champion Quinnipiac from the ECAC, 26-9-2. The final will be at 4 p.m. Sunday.
In Maryland Heights, Mo., Big Ten tourney champ Michigan State, 24-9-3, will meet NCHC team Western Michigan, 21-15-1 at 5 p.m. with NCHC team North Dakota, 26-11-2, colliding at 8:30 p.m. with the Big Ten’s Michigan Wolverines, 21-14-3. The final will be at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
UMaine finished third in Hockey East after being picked to finish ninth in the league’s preseason coaches poll.
Its appearance in the Hockey East semifinals was its first since the 2011-12 campaign.
This will be UMaine’s 19th NCAA Tournament appearance.
UMaine’s last appearance came on March 24, 2012 in the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.
UMaine senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen said it “feels good” to be going to a regional and facing a team they haven’t played this season.
“It’s a little bit better of a feeling playing some fresh faces,” said Breen. “They only have six losses. We’re going to be up for a good fight. They play really strong. They only give up a goal and a half per game. That’s good for them and we’re going to do everything we can to change that around and have a good game on Thursday.”
Junior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale said it is “awesome.
“It’s a good opportunity to play in front of some more Maine fans and that’s always special,” said Breazeale, who was impressed with the large turnout of UMaine fans at the Hockey East semifinal.
“It was like a home game for us,” said Breazeale. “The cheers for us and the boos for BU was amazing. On the way to the rink, you saw all the Maine hockey jerseys. It was really neat.”
He said playing in a regional in the east will be “nice for us.
“The travel is going to be easier. The fans are going to be fantastic,” said Breazeale. “I have no complaints about that.”
He said they will have their hands full with Cornell.
“They’re a really good team. They’ve had a really good season. They don’t give up a lot, they defend really well. They’re big, they have a really good goaltender and a really good coach (Mike Schafer). It’s going to be a really tough matchup for us but we’re excited,” said Breazeale.
Schafer’s Cornell teams have always been among the stingiest in the country and this season is no different as the Big Red come into the game allowing the fewest goals in the nation among 64 Division I schools (1.91 goals per game) thanks to the goalie with the lowest goals-against average in junior Ian Shane (1.73).
UMaine head coach Ben Barr called Cornell “super detailed.
“They aren’t going to give you anything. It’s going to be a really tight defensive game, I imagine,” said Barr.