Every team wants to go into the playoffs with momentum.
The University of Maine men’s hockey team can enter the Hockey East playoffs with its longest unbeaten streak of the season if it beats the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday night in the regular season finale for both teams.
Puck drop is 7 at the Gutterson Fieldhouse.
Any kind of win over the Catamounts, regulation, overtime or shootout, would ensure the Black Bears of a fifth-place finish and a first-round bye to the quarterfinals.
They would travel to take on the fourth-place finisher next Friday night in a single-elimination quarterfinal game.
It would also run its unbeaten streak to six games as UMaine is 4-0-1 in its last five games including four consecutive wins.
But UMaine could wind up sixth and host last-place Vermont in a Wednesday preliminary round game if it loses and Boston University wins at UMass Lowell.
BU is one point behind UMaine but has to earn two more points than UMaine because UMaine owns the tiebreaker vs. BU courtesy of its two wins over the Terriers.
Teams earn three wins for a regulation win, two for a win in overtime or the shootout and one for a loss in overtime or the shootout.
UMaine junior defenseman and assistant captain Frank Djurasevic said it would be nice to get a first-round bye.
He pointed out that when he was at Merrimack two years ago, they had to play a preliminary round game “and it didn’t work in our favor.”
Merrimack lost at Northeastern 4-0.
“It would be good to get some rest and recovery time. We would have to go on the road for the quarterfinal but, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter,” said Djurasevic. “We’ll play anybody. We’re just focusing on Saturday’s game and we’ll see what happens with everyone else.”
“All we can worry about is our game and what we bring to the table,” said senior left wing Owen Fowler.
Fowler said the keys to the recent success is that “we’re playing for each other and keeping things simple. We’re taking care of the puck all around the ice, especially the neutral zone, and that leads to having the puck in the offensive zone a lot and being able to work below the faceoff dots.”
Fowler and junior linemates Sully Scholle, and right wing Josh Nadeau have been on a tear since they have been together the last four games.
Nadeau has six goals and six assists; Fowler has four goals and two assists and Scholle has two goals and four assists. Nadeau is a plus-eight in plus-minus and Fowler and Scholle are plus-seven.
Players receive a plus-one if they are on the ice when their team scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal and a minus-one if the opponent scores one.
“I love playing with them,” said Scholle. “They’re obviously great players and good culture guys. Things are working out well right now. We’re going to do our best to stick to the plan; bring our effort and attitude every day and be positive.”
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said everybody has to contribute for the team to win.
“We’re not a team that can go out and outskill anybody and we never will be,” explained Barr. “We don’t need everyone to have an A-plus game but we can’t have anyone having a C or D game. It has to be an A or a B.”
The 18th-ranked Black Bears are led in scoring by senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt, who has 30 points on 6 goals and 24 assists. No. 2 scorer and leader in goals, freshman left wing Justin Poirier (18-11-29) has missed the last six games with an undisclosed injury and is listed as day-to-day by Barr along with junior center Max Scott (5-13-18), who has been sidelined the last four games. Nadeau (16-13-29) is next in scoring followed by freshman right wing Miguel Marques (9-13-22), Fowler (11-10-21) and Scholle (7-11-18).
Goalie Mathis Rousseau (8-5, 2.45 goals-against average, .901 save percentage) is the reigning Hockey East Rookie of the Week.
Vermont, which snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-4 tie vs. Merrimack last Saturday, is 12-20-1 and 7-15-1. Sophomore left wing Colin Kessler (8-15-23), freshman center Jonah Aegerter (7-7-14), senior left wing Jens Richards (5-8-13) and junior defenseman Sebastian Tornqvist (5-8-13) are Vermont’s leading scorers followed by freshman right wing Matteo Michels (3-7-10) and freshman center Cedrick Guindon (2-8-10).
Freshman goalie Aiden Wright is 11-17-1 with a 3.10 GAA and a .892 save percentage.