The University of Maine’s hockey team was picked to finish last in both Hockey East preseason polls.
It won’t finish there.
That’s not to say the Black Bears are going to challenge for the Hockey East championship. You aren’t going to go from the outhouse to the penthouse in one year.
It takes time.
But the 16 new players second-year head coach Ben Barr and assistants Jason Fortier and Alfie Michaud brought in have already shown that they have the ability to jumpstart the program’s resurgence.
Based on Saturday’s 1-0 exhibition win over a talented and physical University of Prince Edward team, it was obvious that the Black Bears have much more team speed than a year ago, when they went 7-22-4 overall and finished last in Hockey East with a 5-17-2 record.
That is especially important on defense.
UMaine did not have much mobility on defense last season, so it spent a lot of time pinned in its defensive zone.
But freshmen defensemen Luke Antonacci, Grayson Arnott, Brandon Holt, Robert Kincaid and Brandon Chabrier all have good feet and can all break a puck out of the defensive zone on their own. They also have offensive capabilities that will be beneficial. All of them scored at least four goals and had at least 14 assists for their respective junior teams last season.
They averaged 8 goals and 21 assists per player among the five of them.
They will complement captain Jakub Sirota (4 goals, 10 assists in 26 games), Hockey East All-Rookie team selection David Breazeale (2 & 14 in 33 games), senior Dawson Bruneski (1 & 3 in 22 games) and sophomore Sam Duerr (0 & 4 in 10 games), all of whom are strong skaters.
Sirota and Breazeale are potential All-Hockey East candidates.
By spending less time in the defensive zone, the goalies won’t be subjected to as many shots and the Black Bears can spend more time in the offensive zone.
UMaine allowed 3.36 goals per game last seasonm and only 11 teams among the 59 Division I programs surrendered more.
UMaine was also 48th in goals scored with 2.24 per game.
The special teams weren’t good, either, as the power play was 49th at a 15.1 percent efficiency rate, and the penalty kill was 47th at a 77 percent success rate.
The special teams should be significantly better thanks to the experience gained by the 12 returnees and their familiarity with the coaching staff, along with the speed and skill sets of the 16 newcomers.
The goaltending, with the addition of Clarkson University transfer Jacob Mucitelli and maturation of junior returnee Victor Ostman, should also be improved.
Ostman (5-14-1 record, 3.31 goals-against average, .900 save percentage) was better than he was as a freshman but still needs to become more consistent.
Mucitelli had eye-opening numbers at Clarkson a year ago (8-0-1, 1.30, .944), but he was the backup to Ethan Haider and didn’t face many quality teams.
Both Ostman and Mucitelli were razor-sharp against UPEI.
They were well-positioned, squared themselves to the shooters and did a nice job controlling rebounds. Junior Connor Androlewicz will back them up.
The goal production should also be markedly improved.
The Black Bears return their top six point-getters including leading scorer Lynden Breen (9 goals, 16 assists), No. 2 and 3 scorers Donavan Houle (10 & 9) and Grant Hebert (7 & 9).
Ben Poisson (9 goals, 6 assists) is also back and was on a line with Breen and Houle a year ago.
Sophomore Nolan Renwick (4 goals, 7 assists) and senior Matthew Fawcett (5 goals, 2 assists), who transferred from Quinnipiac, received a lot of valuable playing time and should be more productive this season.
The Black Bears have a host of newcomers up front with a lot of promise including four transfers.
Ferris State transfer Justin Michaelian was the Bulldogs’ leading scorer a year ago with 8 goals and 15 assists in 23 games. Didrik Henbrant was Alaska’s (Fairbanks) top goal scorer with 11 and his 20 points were second most.
Michael Mancinelli had 2 goals and 10 assists in 30 games for Arizona State in 2021-22, and Colgate transfer Cole Hanson had 1 goal and 2 assists in 24 games.
Freshmen Felix Trudeau, Killian Kiecker-Olson, Reid Pabich and Thomas Freel averaged 25 goals and 26 assists per player in their respective junior leagues, and Parker Lindauer was a solid two-way player for Muskegon in the United States Junior Hockey League.
Trudeau, Kiecker-OIson and Pabich were linemates against UPEI, and Kiecker-Olson scored the goal with Pabich and Antonacci notching the assists.
Aidan Carney, son of UMaine two-time All-American and longtime NHL defenseman Keith Carney, gives the Black Bears some size up front with his 6-foot-4, 195-pound frame.
UMaine may not have any 20-goal scorers, but it will have a bunch of players capable of scoring between 12 and 18 goals, and that scoring-by-committee blueprint has served a lot of NCAA title contenders well in the past.
UMaine has much more depth than a year ago, which means there will be plenty of competition for playing time. That is a huge plus.
The Black Bears are on the smallish side, but the UPEI game showed that they are all willing to go into the high traffic areas and battle for the puck. They are gritty.
They have a high compete level.
The fact that every player showed up to the optional six-week training regimen in Orono this summer tells you that they are committed to restoring the program to its place among the nation’s elite.
UMaine hasn’t reached the Hockey East semifinals or the NCAA Tournament since the 2011-12 season, its 18th appearance in the tournament. In 11 of those seasons, the Black Bears reached the Frozen Four, and they have two NCAA championships (92-93, 98-99).
Their last Frozen Four appearance was 2006-07.
UMaine could finish anywhere from fourth to ninth.
The Black Bears will receive a terrific barometer of where they are in the first seven games of the season beginning with Friday’s game against the Air Force Academy and Saturday’s contest against defending NCAA champ Denver, the current No. 1 in the USCHO poll.
Those games will be part of the Ice Breaker Tournament in Colorado.
In addition to Denver, they will have two-game home series against the nation’s No. 6-ranked Quinnipiac Bobcats on Oct. 22-23 and No. 8 Northeastern on Oct. 28-29.
Denver, which is in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, Quinnipiac (ECAC) and Northeastern (Hockey East) were all selected to win their conferences in the preseason polls.
UMaine will travel to play Atlantic Hockey team Bentley on Oct. 15.
The fact over 3,000 enthusiastic fans showed up to the exhibition game tells you that the Black Bear faithful believe better days are coming.
And they are coming.
