The foundation has been laid.
The University of Maine’s hockey team played its way into the NCAA Tournament conversation with its 10-3-1 start. The Black Bears are ranked eighth in the country in the two major polls and third in the NCAA Pairwise rankings, which mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process.
It’s the best start since the last UMaine Frozen Four team went 10-3-1 to open the 2006-07 campaign.
But as the Black Bears prepare for the 34th annual Ledyard Classic Tournament at Thompson Arena on the Dartmouth College campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Friday and Saturday, head coach Ben Barr and his players echo the sentiment expressed by the 1986 Monkees song “That Was Then, This Is Now.”
“We have to build on what we started,” said graduate student left wing and assistant captain Ben Poisson. “It won’t be good enough for the next half year because every team is getting better. It’s something we have to do as well.”
UMaine finished the first half by winning four straight games within a nine-day span.
UMaine picked up Hockey East home wins over New Hampshire (5-2) and the University of Connecticut (7-3) and non-conference wins at Union (3-1) and over Bentley (3-2) at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
“Our last three games weren’t too pretty for us,” said senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen. “We can’t fall from the way we were playing at the middle point of the first half when we were at our best. We have to have that same consistency throughout.”
Junior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale added the team has to be consistent and mature, and focus on details such as being at the net and finishing hits.
Poisson agreed.
“We have enough talent to score goals even when we aren’t necessarily playing our best. So it’s more about making sure we’re taking care of the little things and playing a defense-first type of game,” Poisson said.
Barr said his team has to be able to “grind teams down” rather than try to make a play every time they have the puck, but they didn’t do that at all in the wins over Union and Bentley.
Barr watched a lot of videotape during the break and said the team needs some of its players to be better in the second half.
“A third to half of our guys didn’t play their best hockey,” Barr said. “That can be really positive if we can get more out of those guys. And that has to be our message moving forward. We need everyone in the lineup to add something positive.”
UMaine’s last game was on Dec. 9 and the team had time off, but the players returned before Christmas and have had several days of practice. They celebrated Christmas at the Barr household in Brewer.
“It was nice to go home and see our families but we came back early because we believe we have something special here and we wanted to get a lot of work in so we could hit the ground running going into the second half,” Breazeale said.
Poisson said the excitement they have in the locker room that has spilled over into the school and the entire state “makes it easy for us to come to the rink.”
The Dartmouth tournament will be the first one they have played in that features a true championship format, instead of having teams scheduled to play pre-determined opponents like the Ice Breaker Tournament last year when they traveled to Colorado to take on the U.S. Air Force Academy and Denver.
UMaine will take on defending Atlantic Hockey regular season champion and preseason favorite Rochester Institute of Technology, ranked 18th in one national poll and 19th in the other, at 4 p.m. on Friday. RIT is 11-5.
Dartmouth, from the Eastern College Athletic Conference, is 2-3-6 and will take on the Central College Hockey Association Lakers from Lake Superior, 9-9-1, in the 7:30 p.m. semifinal.
The consolation game will be Saturday at 4 p.m. with the title game to follow at 7:30 p.m.
“It will be a little different environment and an extra challenge for us,” Breen said. “We’ll be playing against teams we don’t see often. We have to come out hard on Friday night.”
Freshman brothers and linemates Josh (10 goals, 12 assists) and Bradly Nadeau (10 & 11) continue to lead the Black Bears along with their linemate, Breen (5 & 12). Brandon Chabrier (3 & 8) is the top scoring defenseman and Victor Ostman is 9-3-1 with a 2.40 goals-against average and .903 save percentage in goal.
Second line center Nolan Renwick (2 & 3) and regular defenseman Grayson Arnott (2 & 2) continue to deal with injuries and aren’t expected to play, according to Barr.
RIT features Atlantic Hockey preseason Player of the Year selection Carter Wilkie (7 & 8) and fellow Atlantic Hockey preseason first teamers defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro (7 & 5) and goalie Tommy Scarfone (10-4, 2.33, .926).
Cassaro is tied for the national lead in game-winning goals with five.
Forward Cody Laskosky has 5 & 10 to tie Wilkie for the team scoring lead.
