This past weekend, the University of Maine’s men’s hockey team split a two-game road series against a Holy Cross team that was picked fourth in the preseason poll for Atlantic Hockey America, which is vastly improved but is still considered the worst of the country’s six Division I leagues.
Still, it is difficult to sweep a team on the road and, after an opening-night 4-1 victory, the Black Bears had a dramatic late two-goal rally erased by an overtime game-winner by the Crusaders’ Connor Welsh in a 3-2 setback.
UMaine has 15 newcomers this season, and 12 made their debuts over the weekend, with five registering their first points in a Black Bear uniform. Transfer goalie Petter Wickstrom Stumer made his first start in the loss.
Among the initial observations are that UMaine graduate student left wing and captain Owen Fowler may have been prophetic when he said before the series that the Black Bears are going to be a very good third-period team thanks to their conditioning and the significant upgrade in the size and physicality departments over last season.
UMaine outscored Holy Cross 4-1 in the third period of the two games although one was Fowler’s empty-net goal on Friday night.
UMaine outshot Holy Cross 25-13 in the games’ third periods, including a 13-7 edge on Saturday night despite being assessed five consecutive penalties in the period and having to kill a two-man disadvantage that spanned 1:55 early in the period.
The Black Bears did allow a power play goal on the fourth penalty, which gave Holy Cross a 2-0 lead.
The fact UMaine rallied for two goals 48 seconds apart in the final 3:27 to force overtime is a good sign for the future and highlights the team’s resilience.
The fact the Black Bears took five straight penalties in a game in which they trailed 1-0 entering the period is a concern especially considering it was four veterans who took the penalties. Alternate captain Sully Scholle took two of them. Fowler, Thomas Pichette and Jeremy Langois took the others.
And Welsh’s game-winner in overtime came on a delayed penalty situation.
This team is going to be in a lot of close games so maintaining discipline and staying out of the penalty box will be extremely important.
And goals could be hard to come by because UMaine has only three players who have scored more than seven goals in a college hockey season: Fowler, Tanner Klimpke and Max Scott.
Fowler had 12 last season and 10 in 2024-25 in his first year at UMaine after transferring from UMass Lowell. Transfer Tanner Klimpke had seasons of 15, 10 and 16 goals at Robert Morris and had two power-play goals in Friday’s win.
Max Scott had 12 goals two seasons ago for Brown University before transferring to UMaine.
UMaine had just three even-strength goals vs. Holy Cross. They had two power play goals and an empty-netter.
Winning net-front battles in the offensive zone is going to be a key in order for the Black Bears to score some of those greasy goals via screens, rebounds and deflections.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said his team needs to be more direct by getting shots on net and attacking rather than trying to make fancy plays like they did on Saturday night.
UMaine has plenty of strong, gritty forwards who are capable of popping 8-10 goals this season and a few others who could surpass the 15-goal plateau. The Black Bears will also get some production from the back end as most of their defensemen have offensive skills.
That was shown over the weekend as two of the three players sharing the team lead in points with three right now are defensemen: sophomore Lukas Peterson (3 assists) and Bemidji State transfer Isa Parekh (1 goal, 2 assists), who is a junior.
Klimpke also has three points on two goals and an assist.
Albin Boija turned in a solid outing on Friday, making 18 saves, and that is a source of encouragement. The 2024-25 second team All-American had a forgettable season a year ago and to get off to a good start is important for him.
Canisius transfer Petter Wickstrom Stumer made 23 saves in his UMaine debut on Saturday.
Barr pointed out that Wickstrom Stumer got beat cleanly to the short side on the first and third goals, which he shouldn’t have, but he expects him to learn from it and continue to get better.
Barr was disappointed with Saturday’s result but not with the effort.
“The effort was awesome all weekend. There were a lot of positives,” said Barr. “The reality of our team is everyone has to be good. If one guy doesn’t show up or is just average, it’s probably not going to be good enough.”
The Black Bears play their home-opening series this weekend against what is likely the best team on their schedule: the sixth-ranked Quinnipiac University Bobcats.
Quinnipiac is one of the nation’s elite programs with 11 NCAA Tournament appearances since 2013 along with three Frozen Fours, two NCAA runner-up finishes and an NCAA title in 2023.
Rand Pecknold’s Bobcats went 27-10-3 a year ago including a win over Providence (5-2) and a loss to North Dakota (5-0) in the Sioux Falls Regional.
The team returns nine of its top 10 scorers including national Rookie of the Year and first team All-American Ethan Wyttenbach, who had 25 goals and 34 assists in 40 games.
He is one of five Bobcats with two goals so far this season after they thumped New Hampshire 10-2 and upended reigning Hockey East tourney champ Merrimack 6-3 this past weekend.
Quinnipiac will expose all of UMaine’s weaknesses while also identifying the Black Bears’ strengths.
“What a great opportunity,” Barr said. “They’re one of the best teams in the country. It’s awesome to go up against them.”
Puck drop will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights at Alfond Arena in Orono.