The University of Maine men’s hockey team accomplished a rare feat in Friday and Saturday night’s 3-0 victories over Colgate at the Alfond Arena.
For just the third time in the program’s 50-year history, the Black Bears swept a team with back-to-back shutouts involving two different goalies.
The Swedish tandem of Petter Wickstrom Stumer and Albin Boija did the honors, with Wickstrom Stumer making 24 saves Friday night and Boija stopping 17 shots Saturday.
Wickstrom Stumer, a Canisius University transfer, is from Stockholm, while Boija is from Sundsvall, which is 225 miles from Sweden’s capital.
The last time it happened was in November 2002, when Jimmy Howard made 17 saves in a 5-0 victory over Mercyhurst and Frank Doyle followed that with a 25-save, 7-0 triumph the next night.
Prior to that, Blair Marsh registered 15 saves in a 5-0 win over Boston College on Feb. 18, 1995, and Blair Allison rejected 22 shots the next night in a 4-0 victory.
Technically, two UMaine goalies combined for back-to-back shutouts over Merrimack on Nov. 1-2, 2024, although Boija earned both victories and played all but seven minutes.
Boija made 15 stops in the 5-0 win in the opener and made 15 more the next night before Patriks Berzins came on in a mop-up role with seven minutes remaining and finished with four saves in the 6-0 triumph.
The fact Colgate is now 0-6 and has scored only five goals shouldn’t overshadow the performances turned in by Wickstrom Stumer and Boija, especially in the first periods. Colgate was the better team in the first period both nights and should have taken leads into the intermission.
Wickstrom Stumer’s 12 saves in Friday’s first period featured a pair of important multiple-save sequences during goalmouth scrambles.
Boija had 10 stops in the first period Saturday when the Black Bears were outshot 10-5.
It was the perfect scenario for UMaine head coach Ben Barr, who wants his two goalies pushing each other and competing for the starting job.
Boija was a second team All-American two years ago but dropped off significantly last year to the point where he actually lost his job at the end of the year to freshman Mathis Rousseau.
He knows he has to get back to that standard of two years ago, and the team needs him to do so because UMaine is going to be in a lot of close, low-scoring games.
However, the 6-foot-6 Wickstrom Stumer showed that he is capable of performing at a high level, and if he can continue to do so, that will give Barr and assistant/goalie coach Alfie Michaud the nice luxury of having two potential elite-level goalkeepers they can rely on.
The team’s sluggish starts are a concern, but the way the Black Bears played in the last two periods, especially Saturday night, was encouraging. UMaine outshot Colgate 27-7 over the final 40 minutes and held Colgate to one shot on goal in the middle period.
The Black Bears’ speed, tenacity and aggression took over the game.
This is the deepest of Barr’s six teams at UMaine, and he has pointed out that it is his most mobile defense corps. Goal scoring is the big question mark, but the early signs are positive with 10 players registering at least three points, including eight with four and five with at least five. Fifteen have dented the scoresheet with at least a goal or an assist.
And the defense corps has been getting involved in the offense which will help significantly.
Last year’s defense corps produced 19 goals in 35 games and the current blue-liners have already scored five times in six games led by sophomore Loic Usereau’s three goals and Bemidji State transfer Isa Parekh’s two. Parekh also has three assists and sophomore Lukas Peterson has five assists, which is second on the team to senior center Max Scott’s six.
Up front, UMass Lowell transfer Lee Parks has a five-game goal-scoring streak, and his five goals tie him for fifth in the country among players at the 56 schools who have already played a game this season. The six Ivy League schools have yet to play a regular season contest.
He is tied for seventh in goals per game (.83). The junior right wing’s two game-winning goals tie him for first.
Parks, who also has an assist, is on a line with longtime friend Will Gerrior, who has set him up on three of his goals with nice cross-ice passes. Left wing Gerrior has four assists, and the center of that line, senior alternate captain Max Scott, has a team-high six assists. Scott’s 1.2 assists per game is tied for ninth in the nation.
Barr also has a well-seasoned line involving players who have combined to play 306 college games between them.
That line features graduate student left wing and captain Owen Fowler (1 goal, 3 assists), senior center and alternate captain Sully Scholle (1 goal, 3 assists) and senior right wing Charlie Russell, who will look to find the scoresheet for the first time this weekend when UMaine visits Boston University at 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday for its first two Hockey East games.
Senior left wing and Robert Morris transfer Tanner Klimpke is tied for second in the country with three power play goals, and he also has three assists. He was on a line with Arizona State transfer Sam Alfano (2 goals, 1 assist), who was the right wing. Falmouth’s Brock James centered that line Friday, and vastly improved Jaden Lipinski centered them Saturday, which gave UMaine a line with a pair of 6-foot-4, 210-pounders in Lipinski and Alfano and a 6-2, 182-pound Klimpke.
Barr is comfortable playing any of his 16 forwards and nine defensemen on a given night.
UMaine, ranked 19th in the weekly national USCHO poll, will get severely tested by a highly skilled BU team ranked 14th in one poll and tied for 13th in the other and that has 18 NHL draft picks, including 11 who were selected in the top two rounds.