ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team unveiled a line of senior center Nolan Renwick between transfers Taylor Makar (UMass) and Ross Mitton (Colgate) and it had an impressive debut against American International College in front of a sellout crowd of 5,043 at Alfond Arena Saturday night.
Renwick had two goals and two assists, senior left wing Makar had two goals and an assist and graduate student right wing Mitton notched three assists as the Black Bears triumphed 6-0 on a night where the 1998-99 UMaine NCAA championship team was honored between the second and third periods.
They were inducted into the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame on Friday night.
Sophomore goalie Albin Boija made 17 saves to post the shutout.
Makar scored the first two goals, early in the first period and 4:24 into the second period, and Harrison Scott made it 3-0 at the 13:50 mark of the middle period.
Renwick scored twice early in the third period and Thomas Freel added a power play goal.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said the Renwick line was “outstanding tonight.
“They started on the first shift tonight and never stopped the whole night,” said Barr. “They were heavy, they worked hard and they had the puck most of the night. It’s good to see them get rewarded, It was good to see Nolan get rewarded.”
Renwick scored only two goals in 25 games during an injury-marred 2023-24 season.
“It felt good,” said Renwick, an alternate captain. “Obviously, we’ve found a really good connection. They are two easy guys to play with. We have a lot of similarities. We’re big, fast and strong. It is a treat to play with them.”
“We’re all older guys so it’s really easy to talk to one another. We’ve played a while so staying above pucks and doing stuff like that is something we’re trying to (include) in our game. We want to be a line that is tough to play against,” said Makar, who opened the scoring just 1:35 into the game.
Brandon Holt passed the puck to Renwick in the neutral zone and he fed a perfect pass across to Makar, who raced onto it in full stride down the right wing after cruising around a Yellow Jacket defenseman.
He then snapped a wrist shot from the right wing circle that beat Chase Clark past his glove side into the far corner.
Mitton nearly extended the lead seconds later with a one-handed deflection but it glanced off the underside of the crossbar.
Makar swelled the lead to 2-0 with linemates Renwick and Mitton earning assists.
Mitton fed the puck to Renwick, who put on a burst of speed and broke in alone on Clark.
Clark stopped Renwick’s point-blank shot but the puck sat in the crease and Makar tapped it across the goal line.
Scott extended the lead when he pounced on the rebound of a Brandon Chabrier shot and roofed a wrister from the middle of the slot.
Renwick made it 5-0 with one-timers from the left side of the slot at the :41 and 3:54 marks of the final period and Freel scored with a tip-in from the net front.
Sophomore defenseman and Merrimack College transfer Frank Djurasevic set Renwick up for the first one and Mitton made the cross-ice pass for the second one.
“They were beautiful passes,” said Renwick.
Adam Manji played the third period in goal for AIC.
Barr said he liked the fact his team limited AIC’s scoring chances through the first two periods.
AIC had just eight shots on goal through the first 40 minutes.
UMaine finished with a 32-17 edge in shots on goal.
AIC coach Eric Lang said UMaine did a “way better job getting pucks in behind (our defense) than we did to them and we wore down because of it.”
Lang noted that Makar “looks like a better-skating, better version of what he was at UMass. He was one of the better players on the ice tonight.
“And Mitton was a really good player for them. He could have had a handful of goals tonight. Maine comes at you in waves. They’re well-coached and they have great structure. They don’t beat themselves with how they take care of the puck,” Lang added.