Sometimes in team sports, you suffer a setback during the course of a season that teaches a lesson and makes you better for the remainder of the year. That is the hope for the #7 University of Maine men’s ice hockey team. The Black Bears suffered a 4-2 upset loss to unranked Bentley University this past Sunday evening at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, and now must quickly pick up the pieces with the defending national champion and #6 Denver Pioneers making a trip into Alfond Arena for a two game series this weekend.
Maine (12-3-2), who had their five game win streak and seven game unbeaten streak snapped in their first loss since November 10 at Boston College, now will face some very huge tests and it won’t be easy starting with their final non-conference series of the 2024-25 season against Denver (14-4). The Black Bears will then turn their attention to the final 15 games of the regular season, all in Hockey East, that starts with a difficult road trip to UMass-Lowell (January 10-11), and also to Providence (February 7-8). The Riverhawks and Friars were ranked #10 and #5 in the country respectively in the latest USCHO poll released on Monday, and both teams are currently also above Maine in the latest pairwise rankings.
The biggest issue so far this season for Maine has been being able to play consistently at a championship level if they want to achieve their ultimate goal at the end of the year.
“We’re trying to get everybody to the level of being a championship team and we’re not there yet. Even though we won some games at the start, we knew we weren’t there yet, and we’re still not, so on we go,” Black Bears head coach Ben Barr said after the loss to Bentley on Sunday in Portland. “It’s just a lack of poise, we turn over a puck because we’re stickhandling it, and we’re stickhandling it when we’re scared to have it on our tape. Those are just the fundamentals of the game. We stop moving our feet and start stickhandling, and it ends up in a turnover,” Barr added.
It wasn’t without effort on Sunday against Bentley, as Maine owned a 45-19 shots on goal edge and a 92-33 advantage in shots attempted but also went 1-6 on the powerplay including on a five minute major when they weren’t able to score that certainly hurt their chances. Falcons junior goaltender Connor Hasley also played very well with a career-high 43 saves, helping his team to their first ever win in program history over a top 5 ranked opponent (The Black Bears were previously #4 entering Sunday).
“When we have chances to make plays, half the guys are able to do it, and half are struggling with it. That’s what we’re fighting with, and we’ve been fighting with it all year, talking about the same thing all year. That was kind of the same story tonight. We’re only as good as the weakest link on any given night. That’s the story of our team,” Barr said. “They’re great kids, they care, they all work extremely hard. The motivation is can we all get to the level of Harrison Scott and Thomas Freel? Can we all get to that level of wanting to be that person instead of giving the puck to somebody else because I don’t want it? That’s the usual thing as a coach to try and figure it out as a staff, but if we don’t, tonight won’t be our only disappointment of the year, and that’s the challenge,” Barr would go on to add.
Denver enters this weekend with four players registering at least 19 points. Jack Devine is first on the team with 27 of them, and is first in the nation with 25 assists. Aidan Thompson (11 goals, 13 assists) and Carter King (11 goals, 8 assists) lead the Pioneers in goals scored and are both 10th in the country in that category. Matt Davis is the full-time goaltender and has a record of 13-4 with a goals against average of 2.06 and a .918 save percentage. Head coach David Carle and sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium (4 goals, 16 assists) will not be in Orono with the team this weekend, as both are with Team USA at the World Juniors Tournament.
Denver also has the highest scoring offense in the nation, while Maine is third. DU is averaging 4.0 goals per contest registering 72 of them in 18 games, so the Black Bears must bring that championship caliber type play that Coach Barr has talked about on many occasions this season if it expects to have any success against their opponent this weekend and going forward. Will the team step up in the eye of adversity? That story is yet to be written.
The faceoff times for Maine vs Denver at Alfond Arena in Orono are 6 p.m. on Friday and 6:30 on Saturday, and our Eastern Maine Sports UMaine reporter Chris Lessner will have all the action covered with postgame video interviews and recaps of both games.
Photos below are from earlier games this season by Chris Lessner
