At the Sidney J. Watson Arena at Bowdoin College in Brunswick on Friday night, the Maine men’s hockey team hit the ice for the first time in the 2025-26 season and battled back to force overtime and a shootout in an exhibition game with their longtime rivals from UNH in front of sellout crowd of 2,000 fans.
The Wildcats controlled much of the action for almost a full two periods, and outshot the Black Bears 38-18 on the night. Maine fell in a 2-0 hole, but showed great adverisity in a tune-up game that didn’t count rallying behind with goals from Simon Motew at 18:11 of the second and an equalizing marker on the powerplay by Max Scott at 11:11 of the third period that forced overtime. After a scoreless overtime, UNH won a shootout 2-1. Sam Oliver and Marty Lavins had a pair of powerplay goals for the guests. Thomas Freel, Jaden Lipinski, Josh Nadeau, and Brandon Holt all had one assist each for Maine. Albin Boija played the first 32:53 in net allowing one goal and making 17 saves, while freshman Mathis Rousseau (Quebec) finished up in the cage with 19 stops. Maine begins the regular season next weekend at the newly renovated Alfond Arena in Orono in hosting Holy Cross on Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m.
At the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin the #1 ranked and defending national champion Badgers pulled away on Friday with three goals in the third period to blank Maine women’s hockey 5-0 in non-conference action.
Laila Edwards scored twice for Wisconsin (3-0), including the game winner 5:19 into the second period. Lacey Eden added two assists. Maine was outshot 51-25, as sophomore goalie Kiia Lahtinen made 46 saves in net in the defeat. That is the second most career stops for Lahtinen, as she made 55 saves in a loss to the Badgers last season at Alfond Arena. Makayla Boarder had six shots on goal to lead the Black Bears (0-3). The teams cap off the two game series on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Photos in this story are courtesy of UMaine Athletics
