Alex Gettens will make his official head coaching debut this weekend when his youthful University of Maine women’s ice hockey team entertains the Quinnipiac University Bobcats this weekend at Alfond Arena in Orono.
Quinnipiac returns the nation’s leading goal scorer from last season, Kahlen Lamarche, who had 42 goals in 41 games but just two assists in 3-2 and 4-3 home wins over UMaine. The teams will face off at 6 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.
“I’m not going to put a limit on what this team is capable of,” said Gettens, 33, whose team was picked to finish eighth among 10 teams in the preseason Hockey East poll. “It is a fool’s errand to predict how many wins we’re going to get or where we might finish. Momentum is a crazy thing. When you start believing in yourself and start building confidence in yourself, all of a sudden your ceiling of ability goes way up.”
UMaine lost their lone exhibition game to New Hampshire 5-2 but outshot the Wildcats 45-22. Quinnipiac edged UConn 3-2 in an exhibition contest.
Gettens said his Black Bears will be an aggressive, in-your-face team in all three zones, particularly on the forecheck and in the defensive zone.
“I am a true believer that if you give good players more time and space with the puck, they’re going to be better,” Gettens said. “If you’re overly aggressive, you can get burned, but I want our team to understand that we’re okay with that. If we’re going to be the best we can be, we need to understand how far we can push it and how far we can push ourselves.”
Gettens inherited a young team from former coach Molly Engstrom, who left to become an assistant coach with the new Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise in Detroit.
Four of last year’s top five scorers were freshmen and the other was a sophomore.
They are all back along with 10 of the next 12 leading point-getters.
Workhorse goalkeeper Kiia Lahtinen is also back as is vastly improved backup goalie Madisyn Ryan.
The strength of the team will be the defense corps and the goaltending.
The blue line group features sophomores Lulu Rucinski and Paige Fong, the team’s fourth and fifth-leading scorers a year ago with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Rucinski had four goals and 11 assists, and Fong had one goal and 12 assists.
Sophomore Sade Sandilands had three goals and four assists, and juniors Brenna Curl and Kendall Sundby had one goal and six assists and two goals and four assists, respectively.
Lahtinen played in 33 games and posted a 12-16-4 record, a 2.40 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage with three shutouts. Ryan appeared in three games and had a 1-2 record with a 2.11 GAA and a .922 save percentage.
“We feel really good about our depth in the back end and in net,” Gettens said. “We’re going to let our defense cut it loose a little bit. We’re going to unleash them and allow them to take a few more risks on the offensive side.”
Curl led the team with 67 blocked shots followed by Sandilands’ 53, Rucinski’s 52, Sundby’s 45 and Fong’s 34.
Goal production was an issue as it was the year before as UMaine has averaged fewer than two goals a game each year.
The Black Bears averaged only 1.97 goals per game last season, which was 34th among 45 Division I schools. They averaged 1.8 the previous year.
One of the reasons was their dismal power play showings, a 12.7% success rate in 2025-26 after a 12.9 performance in 2024-25.
“It has been a theme for us that we haven’t been able to score a ton. But we are going to put an emphasis on how to continue to build our confidence in those (scoring) moments,” Gettens said. “We’re going to look to create different types of scoring chances than we have in the past.”
They will explore ways to move the puck more effectively to generate high-percentage chances, and he said they may be okay “taking seven shots off the board if we’re trying to make a more dangerous play that results in the puck going into the back of the net.”
Gettens said he is “fired up” about working with the power play because that was one of his specialties as an assistant coach and two of his new assistants are also well-versed in power play strategy.
His three top returning scorers are linemates with sophomore Mackenzie Podewell (six goals, 10 assists) centering for sophomore left wing Isabelle Michaud (11 goals, eight assists) and junior right wing Stephanie Jacob (10 goals, five assists).
“They’ve been playing really well. They’ve built some really good chemistry early on,” Gettens said.
A promising youthful line features freshmen Tiani Makokis and Julie Jebouskova at center and left wing, respectively, and senior Raegan Wurm (four goals, three assists) on the right side.
A possible all-senior third line would feature wingers Mikayla Boarder and Lily Fetch sandwiching center Haley Ryan, who had been a winger. Junior Gracie Hanson is likely to see playing time.
Gettens was quick to point out that they are still a work in progress, so there are any number of players who could crack the lineup at any time.
“We have exciting players up and down the lineup,” he said.
Gettens said he thoroughly enjoys coaching this team.
“The kids are unbelievable. They are so thankful for everything they have and they get along well with one another,” said Gettens who, along with his team, has benefitted from the $50 million renovation to Alfond Arena. “They love being around each other and our staff. It’s a very cohesive group, and that is something I really believe in.”
The Black Bears have a challenging non-conference schedule that includes a game with third-ranked Minnesota in addition to the two with Quinnipiac.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “It will teach us a lot and prepare us really well for our conference games.”