Both the University of Maine men’s ice hockey and football teams face bounce back games in Orono this weekend.
The Maine hockey team (0-1) will welcome in Alaska-Anchorage for a pair of games at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday night. The Black Bears are coming off a season opening loss in Hockey East action last Saturday at Providence 7-0 in which they were outshot 59-29. Maine followed that up with a 5-0 loss at home to New Brunswick in an exhibition matchup on Sunday. Most think the Bears should sweep this weekend over a Seawolves team that won three games last season (3-28-3) and haven’t won 10 or more games since the 2015-16 season. Maine MUST get off to a good start and take care of the visitors this weekend or it is going to be a very long winter ahead for the hockey program. Prediction here is the Black Bears win two close games over the Seawolves for the weekend sweep- Maine 4, UAA 2 (Fri), Maine 3, UAA 2 (Sat).
The Maine football team (2-3, 0-2 CAA) hosts Richmond at Alfond Stadium at 12 p.m. Saturday. The Bears are fresh off a bye week after being handled by Villanova 33-17 in Pennsylvania two weeks ago in a game Maine fell behind 30-0 early in the second quarter. The Spiders come into the contest 2-3, 1-1 topping Albany at home 23-20 last Saturday. Richmond though is 0-2 in road games so far this season while Maine is 1-1 on Morse Field. The Bears must win all remaining CAA conference games the rest of the way for any chance at the FCS playoffs. The running game hasn’t put a full game together all season forcing quarterback Chris Ferguson to throw alot more than they would like (8 interceptions), and the “Black Hole defense” hasn’t forced a single turnover. Prediction- Look for Maine after the bye week to get the running game going and a better overall defense performance with that first turnover forced in stopping Richmond 28-13 on Saturday to pick up their first conference win.
