The University of Maine’s newly crowned Hockey East champion men’s hockey team will open the 16-team NCAA Tournament Friday as a No. 1 seed in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The 24-7-6 Black Bears were selected Sunday afternoon as the 3rd-best team in the country and will take on No. 13 Penn State, the 20-13-4 host school from the Big Ten Conference, in the tournament’s opening round at the PPL Center at 8:30 p.m.
The University of Connecticut, 22-11-4, will be making its first NCAA tournament appearance and will join the Black Bears and Nittany Lions in the regional along with ECAC regular season champion Quinnipiac (24-11-2). UConn and Quinnipiac will play Friday’s opener at 5 p.m. Sunday’s game for a spot in the Frozen Four will be played at either 4:30 p.m. or 7 p.m.
UMaine and UConn, the No. 2 team in the region, could face off for a trip to the Frozen Four in a rematch of Friday’s game that the Black Bears won 5-2 at the TD Garden in Boston to claim its sixth conference tournament championship and first since 2004.
The Hockey East battle had little effect on the NCAA Tournament seeding.
Boston College, which was bounced from the conference championship by Northeastern in the quarterfinals, opens the tournament in Manchester, New Hampshire, as the No. 1 team in the country for the second year in a row. The Eagles (26-7-2) will face Atlantic Hockey America winner Bentley (23-14-2) in its opener.
Hockey East placed six teams in the tournament, most of any of the six conferences.
Providence (21-10-5) will face defending national champion Denver (29-11-1) in the other first round game at Manchester.
UMass (20-13-5) will take on top seed Western Michigan (30-7-1) in the Fargo Regional and Boston University (21-13-2) will meet Ohio State (24-13-2) in the Toledo Regional.
The Black Bears will be facing a Penn State team that impressively strung together its current 12-3-3 run that earned the Nittany Lions their tournament berth.
Penn State finished fifth among seven teams in the Big Ten but upset No. 4 Michigan, 6-5 in overtime and 5-2, in Ann Arbor in their best-of-three quarterfinal series before losing to third seed Ohio State 4-3 in overtime in the semifinals.
Penn State’s campus is 166 miles from Allentown, so the Nittany Lions will have a home ice advantage.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr and his players are looking forward to the challenge.
“It is what it is,” said Barr at the NCAA Tournament selection show get-together on campus. “Regardless of who you play this time of year, you’re playing a really good team.”
Barr was about to go watch film on Penn State, a team the Black Bears have never played. They were supposed to play a two-game series at Penn State in 2021-22 but it was cancelled due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the UMaine program.
“It will be amped up,” Barr said. “It’s in Pennsylvania and we’re playing a late game against Penn State. It should be a lot of fun.”
He said Penn State has been one of the best teams in the country over the second half of the season, like UConn was in Hockey East.
“It’s going to be a really tough test,” Barr added.
Senior centers and alternate captains Harrison Scott and Nolan Renwick said this will be the first time they have faced a Big Ten school in their careers.
“It’s a great opportunity,” said Scott, “I’m confident in our game right now.”
It will be UMaine’s 20th NCAA tournament appearance and second in as many years. The Black Bears lost to Cornell 3-1 in their first round game in Springfield, Massachusetts, last season in the program’s first NCAA appearance since the 2011-12 campaign.
“It’s going to be really cool,” said Renwick, “You see all the videos and stuff and they have a great following at Penn State. They will bring that to Allentown as well so it should be a very exciting game and we’re looking forward to getting down there and competing.”
The players expect an energized atmosphere in the arena.
“There is going to be a lot of juice in the building with our two fan bases,” said junior left wing Owen Fowler. “Some of the craziest fans in college hockey.”
Sophomore right wing Josh Nadeau said the team “feels good” going into the regional.
“We’ve worked all year for this. We’re built for big moments. It should be a good challenge for us,” said Nadeau.
UMaine graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Been said they are comfortable playing anyone.
“From what I’ve heard, they’re a good offensive-minded team that likes taking risks and plays fast,” said Breen. “Luckily enough, we play those teams every night in Hockey East. We’re ready to play whoever.”
Breen added that “you have to go through everyone to get to the end goal” of winning a national championship.
“We’ve got to bring our A-game,” Breen said.