After suffering a men’s Hockey East sweep at the hands of the #2 Boston College Eagles at Kelly Rink in Chestnut Hill this past weekend, the Maine Black Bears return back home to Alfond Arena this weekend to renew their rivalry with the #11 Boston University Terriers in a two game league series on Friday and Saturday night.
Maine (6-2-1, 3-2-1 Hockey East) certainly had their chances in both games against a very talented Boston College team that features 12 NHL draft picks. On Friday night, the Black Bears got goals in the second period from Josh Nadeau and Oskar Komarov with 13:00 left in the third to take a 2-0 lead. The Eagles though would rally for three straight in a span of 8:02 capped off by a game winner by Ryan Leonard with 1:33 left to steal the 3-2 victory. On Sunday afternoon, the visitors had a chance for an early advantage when they had a 3 on 1 breakout in the first period but Sully Scholle was stopped by BC netminder Jacob Fowler. Leonard got his second game winner of the weekend in the second, that culminated in a 3-0 victory in a game that was much closer than final score indicates. Maine also dropped to 1-2-1 on the road over the early part of the schedule with a win and a tie against Northeastern and the two losses to Boston College, an area the team knows they’ll have to get better at if they want to make it to where they believe they can go.
Maine, who dropped this week in the national poll from #5 to #7 in the country and also from #2 to #7 in the early pairwise rankings, look to pay closer attention to detail and enact some revenge against the 11th ranked Terriers. BU knocked the Black Bears out of the Hockey East playoffs last season with a 4-1 win in the semifinals at TD Garden. Boston U enters this weekend at 5-4 overall and 2-1 in the conference, with all four of their losses coming against teams in the Top 15 (#9 North Dakota, #5 Michigan twice, #15 UMass-Lowell). The special teams again will be huge in this series. Maine only had three opportunities with the extra man in the series at Boston College and went 0-3, but so far are operating at 24% on the powerplay (9-37), while only allowing their opponents to be successful just 12.5% of the time (4-32). Boston University is at 10-37 (27%) on their powerplay, while giving up 10 goals shorthanded 10-30 (33.3%).
The faceoff time for Friday and Saturday night at Alfond Arena in Orono is scheduled for 7 p.m. Maine has lost six straight games to Boston University, with the last win coming on March 5, 2022 by a score of 8-1 in the last game of the regular season.
Maine sophomore forward Charlie Russell battles for a loose puck in front of the net during a 6-0 Hockey East win over Merrimack in Orono on November 2. Russell and the #7 Black Bears are back home this weekend to face rival #11 Boston University at Alfond Arena. Photo by Anthony DelMonaco
