After breaking a hiatus of 12 years last March, the University of Maine will host a Hockey East men’s quarterfinal playoff game for a second straight season at Alfond Arena in Orono. The #2 seeded Black Bears finished five points behind regular season champion Boston College, and will welcome in the #7 UMass-Lowell Riverhawks on Saturday night. UML defended home ice and beat #10 UNH at the Tsongas Center in a first round game 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday night.
#4 nationally ranked Maine (21-7-6) coached by Ben Barr hasn’t exactly played their best hockey in the second half of the season. The Black Bears since December 29th have only scored more than two goals vs an opposing goalie five times in their 17 games. In their regular season finales last weekend, Maine was thumped by UMass 5-1 in the series opener in Amherst on Friday. They did show some resiliency in rallying from down 2-0 after two periods to force a 2-2 tie with the Minutemen on Saturday and won a shootout, which they’re hoping will build some momentum heading into postseason. The Black Bears must get more production from their top players if it expects to play deep into the Hockey East playoffs and the NCAA Tournament. Leading point getter in senior forward Harrison Scott (16 goals, 15 assists) has only scored once in the last 14 games. Junior forward Thomas Freel (10 goals, six assists), who has been a key on the powerplay this season, has only found the back of the net once in his last 13 contests. Despite some contributions in goal scoring and points from the third and fourth liners, the team knows the guys that are supposed to step up need to in the playoffs. With the lack of goal scoring in the second half that began on December 29th (lost 4-2 to Bentley), Maine has been able to go 9-4-4 in the 17 games thanks mostly to sophomore Albin Boija. The native of Sundsvall, Sweden in one of the top netminders in the country and has saved the bacon on numerous occasions for his team especially over the last part of the season. Boija made a spectacular game winning save in a 3-2 home win over UMass on February 2nd when he stopped Dans Locmelis point blank in the closing seconds of the third period, and he did the same to Locmelis with the possible game winning goal on his stick last Saturday with three minutes left in the third period to preserve a 2-2 road tie with the Minutemen. He brings a 20-7-6 record into postseason with a 1.77 goals against average and a .929 save percentage with four shutouts.
UMass-Lowell enters the game Saturday with a record of 16-15-4, ranked #19 in the USCHO Poll this week. The Riverhawks went 8-13-3 in Hockey East, and will likely need to win the entire postseason league tournament to have any chance to play in the NCAAs (#17 in pairwise). After being swept at UNH on the final weekend of the regular season, UML got a game winning overtime goal at 3:38 from Scout Truman to top the Wildcats in the opening round game at home on Wednesday. Senior forward Owen Cole is their leading point scorer (eight goals, 12 assists), while their junior forward Truman is the team leader in goals with 10 to go along with eight assists. UMass-Lowell features a two goalie tandem of graduate Henry Welsch and junior Beni Halasz. Welsch starting the most recent game vs UNH on Wednesday and had 22 saves. For the season, Welsch has played in 19 games (18 starts) and has a record of 11-7-1 with a 2.48 goals against and a save percentage of .901. Halasz has 17 starts and is 5-8-3 with a 2.57 goals against and a save percentage of .909.
Maine and UMass-Lowell are two of the more stingier teams on powerplay opportunities for their opponents. The Black Bears have killed off 94 of 112 powerplays against (16% success rate), while the Riverhawks have killed off 85 of 107 (21% opponents success). In powerplays for, Maine is 27-126 (21.4) and UML is 20-97 (20.6%). The teams met twice in the regular season at Lowell on January 10th and 11th, and the Black Bears came away with two hard fought wins 3-1 and 2-1. Faceoff for the quarterfinal at Alfond Arena is set for 6 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on ESPN Plus. After not making it to Boston for the semifinals in 12 years, Maine will attempt to get there for a second straight season having already clinched their second NCAA Tournament appearance in a row no matter what happens in the conference playoffs. Last March, they defeated UNH 5-0 at home in the quarterfinals, before losing 4-1 to Boston University at TD Garden in the semis and dropped a 3-1 decision to Cornell in a first round NCAA regional game in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is the first time they’re headed to back to back NCAA Tournaments since going to six straight stretching from the 2001-02 season to 2006-07 when they were under the direction of head coach Tim Whitehead. The Black Bears are 14-2-3 at the Alfond this year with the losses coming to Denver (2-1 on January 3rd) and UConn (4-2 on January 17th).
