University of Maine hockey fans will get a valuable gauge on where their team stands this weekend when the Black Bears entertain the nation’s third-ranked hockey team.
UMaine plays the Quinnipiac University Bobcats on Saturday night at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m.
The Black Bears are coming off a humbling 5-1 loss to Atlantic Hockey team Bentley while the Bobcats posted an impressive weekend at North Dakota, tying 5-5 and beating the then-third-ranked Fighting Hawks 6-2.
The loss to Bentley left UMaine fans scratching their heads as it followed a stretch of encouraging performances that included a 1-0 exhibition game win over the University of Prince Edward Island, a 4-1 win over the Air Force Academy, and a 3-1 loss to defending national champ and then-ranked No. 1 Denver in Colorado at the Ice Breaker Tournament.
“Obviously, the Bentley game was a big letdown,” said UMaine sophomore center Nolan Renwick, who added that they want to prove that was a rare subpar performance and it won’t be repeated.
“We took a lesson from that. We have to be ready to go every night,” Renwick said. “They’re a real good hockey team. This is a great opportunity for us. I love the challenge.”
He said it is important to put on a good show for their loyal and energetic fans.
“They’re paying good money to watch us play so one of our responsibilities is to bring our best effort every night and give them a performance they will be proud of and we will be proud of as well,” Renwick said. “We want them to keep coming back.”
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said that the team has to be near-perfect to win, regardless of its opponent.
“As crazy as it sounds, we didn’t play badly at Bentley. Every mistake we made wound up in the back of our net and we don’t have anybody filling the net for us. We had 21 scoring chances to their eight but scored only one of them and they scored four on their eight,” he said.
Quinnipiac enters the season looking for its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
Coach Rand Pecknold’s Bobcats finished at 32-7-3 a year ago and beat St. Cloud State 5-4 in the regional tournament in Allentown, Pennsylvania, before losing to Michigan 7-4 in the quarterfinals.
They returned seven of their top 11 scorers and goalie Yaniv Perets, and were picked to win the ECAC League in the preseason poll.
“We want to play the best teams in the country because that’s what we want to be,” Renwick said.
The second-year head coach said one of the areas his team must improve on is its play in front of the opponent’s net. That also plagued them a year ago, Barr said.
UMaine has scored only seven goals in its four games including the exhibition game win over UPEI and it is 0-for-9 on the power play.
“We have to get our bodies over the puck around the crease and bury some goals,” agreed graduate student defenseman and captain Jakub Sirota.
The players are confident they can go toe-to-toe with Quinnipiac even though the Bobcats drubbed them in an exhibition game in New Hampshire last season 7-0.
“We all know what we have in the locker room. We all worked hard in the summer and at the beginning of the season and it’s going to pay off,” said sophomore defenseman David Breazeale. “We believe in ourselves. It’s way too early to count us out.”
The Bobcats are led by preseason All-ECAC selections Zach Metsa and Perets.
Metsa was the league’s Defenseman of the Year last season thanks to his 27 assists, which were second most among Division I defensemen. Perets was a Hobey Baker Award finalist and a finalist for the Mike Richter Award given to the nation’s top goalie as he posted a 1.15 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage.
