The Maine-Boston University men’s hockey storied rivalry continues this weekend, as the #5 Terriers visit Alfond Arena in Orono to tangle with the #12 Black Bears. The two contests are the conference openers for Maine, while BU has already played two league games. The faceoff times for both Friday and Saturday night is 7:30 p.m.
Boston University enters play at 3-3-1 and 1-1 so far in Hockey East. They split last weekend in their conference openers, falling 8-4 at home vs UConn before beating the Huskies the next night 3-1 on the road in Storrs. The Terriers already have three forwards and a defenseman with at least seven points in the seven games played. Cole Eiserman leads the way with six goals and two assists, while Owen McLaughlin (three goals, four assists), and Ryder Ritchie (two goals, five assists) round out the top scoring forwards. Defenseman Cole Hutson also has two goals and six assists tying Eiserman for the top point getter on the team with eight. Sophomore Mikhail Yegorov has started all seven games in net and owns a record of 3-3-1 with a 3.09 goals against average and a save percentage of .902.
Maine is 3-2-1 in the early season, falling to Colgate last Friday night 3-2 before rallying from a 2-0 deficit on Saturday to win 3-2 in overtime over the Raiders on a goal by Max Scott at the Alfond to split their non-conference series. Freshman forward Justin Poirier has been outstanding thus far as he has a team-high eight points with five goals and three assists. Forwards Thomas Freel (three goals, two assists), Jaden Lipinski (two goals, three assists), Scott (one goal, four assists), and defenseman Brandon Holt (five assists) all have five points. Junior Albin Boija has started five of the six games in goal and has a 3-1-1 record with a 2.18 goals against average and a save percentage of .904.
The special teams play will be a huge factor in these matchups, as BU is converting at 26.7% so far on the powerplay while Maine has struggled at just 19%. Defensively the Black Bears have allowed their opponents powerplay to operate at 24%, while the Terriers have killed off 22 of 26 extra man opportunities (15.4% success rate for their opponents). Maine and BU met twice at the Alfond last November with the Black Bears gaining a win and a tie, but the Terriers have won three of the previous five matchups (3-1-1) including in the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden during the 2023-24 campaign.
Here is a tale of the tape-
Shots per game for 30.1 (BU)/26.2 (ME)
Shots P/G against 31.7 (BU)/24.7 (ME)
Goals per game 3.4 (BU)/3.3 (ME)
Goals allowed P/G 3.3 (BU)/2.5 (ME)
Powerplay for 8-30 (BU)/4-21 (ME)
Powerplay against 4-26 (BU)/7-29 (ME)
Penalty minutes 66 (BU)/90 (ME)
PIM per game 9.4 (BU)/15.0 (ME)
Faceoffs won/lost 214-207 (BU)/174-171 (ME)
All photos are courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco
