The University of Maine men’s hockey team was off last weekend and now begins the stretch run with 12 games over the next six weekends leading up to the Hockey East playoffs.
Analysis
UMaine is currently ranked fifth in the USA Hockey/The Rink national poll and sixth in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll.
Seven of the Black Bears’ last 12 games will be against teams that are currently ranked in the top 20 of the two polls: No. 10 Providence (2 games), No. 11 UMass (3) and No. 17/18 New Hampshire (2). Three more games are against a resurgent and now-healthy Northeastern University team and the other two will be at Vermont against a Catamount team that has been better than people expected.
The Black Bears are currently 16-4-2 overall and 8-3-1 in Hockey East.
They are in third place, nine points behind co-leaders Boston College and Boston University.
But UMaine has played three fewer games. If the Black Bears were to win those three games in regulation, the Black Bears would tie BC and BU because teams get three points for a regulation win.
Teams get two points for an overtime or shootout win and one point for an overtime or shootout loss.
The Black Bears would love a top-four finish because that would ensure a first-round bye and a home game in the quarterfinals.
That would mean they would need just one win to reach the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden in Boston for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
Six wins in their final 12 games would probably earn them their first berth in the NCAA Tournament since that 2011-12 campaign regardless of their post-season performance.
But that is by no means a certainty.
Sixteen teams among the 64 in Division I earn NCAA Tournament berths.
There are six conferences and the teams that win their respective tournaments earn the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, leaving 10 at-large berths.
If there are a number of upset champions that had to win their tournament to get in, that would crowd the at-large pool and some quality teams with impressive records would be left out.
UMaine does have an impressive strength of schedule which would help it. Boston College, after its sweep of Boston University this past weekend, is No. 1 in the country and UMaine has a win and a tie against the Eagles.
UMaine lost a pair of one-goal games at BU but split a series at No. 7 Quinnipiac. The Black Bears also have wins over New Hampshire and the Rochester Institute of Technology, which is 19th in the USCHO poll and 21st in the USA Today/The Rink poll.
UMaine third-year head coach Ben Barr isn’t looking past Friday’s game at Northeastern.
“You can’t get ahead of yourself. You saw what happened last year,” said Barr. “We were playing our best hockey of the season and then we lost our last three home games. In our home playoff game, it’s like we had our skates on the wrong feet.”
UMaine entered the final series of the regular season against visiting UMass with just one loss in its previous 10 games (6-1-3) but got swept by UMass 5-2, 4-3 and then got upset by 11th seed Vermont 4-2 in its first round Hockey East playoff game.
Barring any injuries sustained in practice this week, they will be healthy for the first time since the Nov. 4 game at Merrimack.
Junior center Nolan Renwick and sophomore defenseman Grayson Arnott have been practicing with the team after missing the last eight and 10 games, respectively, due to injury.
The 6-3, 212-pound Renwick has missed 12 of the last 16 games and the 5-9, 155-pound Arnott has been sidelined for 12 of the last 14.
Each has played in 10 games this season.
Renwick has two goals and three assists and Arnott has two goals and two assists.
Renwick supplies them with an all-situation power forward with 79 career games under his belt (15 goals, 21 assists). He is also an assistant captain.
Arnott is a steady puck-moving defenseman who can also produce offense. He has four goals and 11 assists in 34 career games. He is averaging one blocked shot per game this season and that is second on the team behind junior co-captain David Breazeale (1.3 bpg).
“Having everyone back now almost makes it tough to figure out who plays with who,” said Barr. “They are two big parts of our team but they have to earn their way back into the mix, too. Our team is different now than it was when they got hurt.”
Northeastern is 9-12-2 overall, 4-6-1 in Hockey East, and is coming off a sweep of Merrimack.
NU has had only five skaters play in all 23 games and is 7-5-1 in its last 13 games after going through on 0-7-1 stretch.
Northeastern will play Boston University on Tuesday night.
UMass is 13-6-3 overall, 6-4-2 in league play, and is 8-2-2 at home.
“We have to keep getting better and more precise with what we do,” said Barr. “Northeastern is healthy now and that will be a real good challenge. UMass has an outstanding team.
“Every team we will play will be good. We have to keep pushing the envelope with our habits and details. That’s what we win with,” said Barr.
