With seven games left in the regular season, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire are set to renew their men’s hockey rivalry this Friday and Saturday night at Alfond Arena for a two game conference series.
#5 Maine (18-5-4, 10-3-4 Hockey East) enters this weekend after taking four of a possible six league points on the road at #7 Providence College with a 3-3 tie and a shootout win last Friday night, and a 1-0 overtime victory on Saturday. UMass transfer and senior forward Taylor Makar has been on an absolute tear for the Black Bears. Makar has scored seven goals in his last five games. He scored twice in the third period in game one at Providence, both of them being tying goals with one coming shorthanded and the other with an extra attacker with 2:04 left that would force overtime. He then would register his third tally of the weekend in game two on Saturday night at the 2:15 mark of overtime off a Nolan Renwick feed to give his team four huge conference points. Makar has a career-high 13 goals, and also has dished out 10 assists. His 23 points already in 27 games in a Maine sweater are more than he had combined in 85 games in the previous three years with the Minutemen (15 goals, seven assists, 22 points). Sophomore goalie Albin Boija also helped to steal some of the show in the series, especially on Saturday in picking up his fourth shutout of the season when he made at least three Grade A saves in the second period including stopping two breakaways to keep the game scoreless. It is the second time in the last three games that he has stolen a victory for his team, that included the save of the year with 28.6 seconds left in the third period of a 3-2 home win over UMass on February 2nd. The native of Sundsvall, Sweden is among the leaders in the entire nation in goals against average (1.61) and save percentage (.931).
The Black Bears must generate more offense however over the tailend of the season. Maine hasn’t scored more than three goals in any game since returning from Christmas Break on December 29, and have put in two goals or less vs an opposing goalie in nine of the 11 games played over that time period. The powerplay has also struggled, as they are 0 for their last 22 and 2-31 since the calendar turned over to 2025. They haven’t scored with the extra man since the first period of a 2-1 win at UMass-Lowell on January 11th. Leading point getter in senior forward Harrison Scott (15 goals, 14 assists) has been held without a goal in the last seven games, registering a total of three assists. One positive is that graduate captain Lynden Breen is back skating and practicing with the team. Breen, who suffered a broken fibula in a game at RPI on November 30th and had to undergo surgery, is considered day to day and no timetable is set for any return according to head coach Ben Barr.
UNH will invade Alfond Arena with a record of 11-12-3 (3-11-2 Hockey East), and is currently on a three game losing streak. They most recently dropped home games to #1 Boston College and Merrimack College 4-2 and 5-4 respectively last Friday and Saturday. The Wildcats have been led by four skaters who have 20 or more points. Sophomore Ryan Conmy (13 goals, 12 assists) leads the team with 25 points, while senior Robert Cronin (11&10, 21 points), senior Liam Devlin (7&14, 21 points), and junior Cy LeClerc (7&13, 20 points) have also contributed. Junior Jared Whale has started all 26 games in net and owns a 2.66 goals against average and a save percentage of .890. UNH is certainly in need of some big wins, as they currently sit 18th in the pairwise rankings that emulates the NCAA Tournament seedings (Top 16 make it).
Maine and UNH met earlier this season at the Whittemore Center in Durham, with the Black Bears coming away with a hard fought 3-1 win on November 22nd. The face-off times for this matchup are set for 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday night in Orono. As fans of both teams know, you throw out the records all together in a rivalry series of this magnitude. Maine (4th in pairwise) is currently just two points behind Boston College for first place in Hockey East. The Eagles play a home and home with UMass this weekend. The Black Bears have won the last two meetings with the Wildcats, that also included a 5-0 shutout victory in the Hockey East quarterfinals last March at the Alfond.
