The Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh, were expected to have an immediate impact on the University of Maine’s hockey team as freshmen this season.
They certainly have and they have been rewarded for it by being named All-Hockey East selections on Friday.
Bradly, who was named to the league’s All-Rookie team on Wednesday, earned a berth on the All-Hockey East second team and older brother Josh was picked to the third team.
They are the first UMaine freshmen to earn a spot on a Hockey East All-Star team (first, second or third team) since defenseman Jeff Tory in the 1994-95 season.
The Nadeaus will return to the ice at 7 p.m. on Saturday when the 22-10-2 and third-seeded Black Bears host arch-rival and sixth seed New Hampshire, 20-14-1, in a Hockey East quarterfinal game at the Alfond Arena.
The winner moves on to the TD Garden in Boston for Friday’s semifinals at 4 and 7:30 p.m.
UMaine is virtually assured of an NCAA Tournament berth already but UNH may have to win the tournament to qualify via the automatic berth given to the tourney champ.
The All-Hockey East first team is composed of Boston College goalie Jacob Fowler and forwards Cutter Gauthier and Will Smith; Boston University defenseman Lane Hutson and forward Macklin Celebrini and UMass defenseman Ryan Ufko.
Nadeau was joined on the second team by Boston College forwards Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault and defenseman Eamon Powell; Boston University defenseman Tom Willander and UMass goalie Michael Hrabal.
Like the Nadeaus, Fowler, Celebrini, Smith, Hrabal, Willander, Leonard and Perreault are also freshmen.
Josh Nadeau was the only freshman on the third team. The other selections were Northeastern forwards Alex Campbell and Justin Hryckowian; defensemen Scott Morrow from UMass and Alex Gagne from New Hampshire and goalie Mathieu Caron from Boston University.
The Nadeau brothers each have a team-high 41 points and they became the first freshmen at UMaine to reach the 40-point plateau since Teddy Purcell racked up 43 points during the 2006-07 season.
It is the first time UMaine has had multiple 40-point scorers since the 2011-12 season when Hobey Baker Award finalist Spencer Abbott had 62, Brian Flynn had 48 points and Joey Diamond had 47.
Bradly Nadeau has 17 goals and 24 assists and Josh Nadeau has 16 goals and 25 assists in 34 games.
Josh Nadeau leads the team in power play goals with eight and he and Bradly share the team lead in game-winning goals with Harrison Scott. All three have four game-winners.
The Nadeaus have have been wings on lines centered by Lynden Breen, Scott and currently, Nolan Renwick.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said the Nadeaus have played a huge role in the team’s success.
“Their offensive ability is very unique and impressive,” said Barr. “They are very smart. They have high hockey IQs and they are competitors. That allows them to thrive.”
He said he didn’t put any expectations on them because “even though you know they are good players, you don’t know how long it is going to take them to adjust (to college hockey). It didn’t take them all that long.”
The St.-Francois-de-Madawaska natives have assisted each other on 21 goals and have each picked up an assist on seven goals scored by teammates.
Barr said all the awards are “great” but the Nadeaus “just want to win.
“And we want to win as a team,” said Barr.
The Nadeaus play in all situations, including the penalty kill.
The Nadeaus and their teammates are going to have to work hard to put the puck behind UNH junior goalie Jakub Hellsten because he has allowed only one goal in his last four games and will enter the game with a string of three consecutive shutout wins, all over 11th seed UMass Lowell including a 1-0 victory on Wednesday in a preliminary round game in Durham, N.H.
He has a string of 192:38 scoreless minutes.
North Dakota transfer Hellsten has stopped 78 of the last 79 shots he has faced and his 1.93 goals-against average is third best in the country among 64 Division I schools.
UMaine freshman goalie Albin Boija’s 2.07 GAA is seventh-best.
UMaine beat UNH in an exhibition game at Colby College in Waterville 3-2 on Oct. 7 and earned a 5-2 home win on Dec. 1 before UNH swept the Black Bears in Durham, N.H. 6-2 and 5-2 on Feb. 16-17.
“They are an incredibly hard-working team. They have something special going on, culture-wise, in their locker room,” said Barr. “They have a new level of work ethic and we found that out when we played them down there. We didn’t match their work ethic. They finished every hit, they won one-on-one puck battles and got to most pucks first.
“We were just half-in on that stuff and that’s what wins and loses hockey games this time of year,” he said.
UMaine will be looking to snap a string of 12 consecutive Hockey East playoff losses dating back to a 4-2 win at Vermont on March 7, 2015. Only one playoff game was at Alfond Arena, a 7-2 shellacking at the hands of UNH on March 10, 2021.
Breen said that won’t be hanging over them “because we have already done things this season that haven’t been done here in a while.”
That includes the first top three finish in the league since 2009-10 and the best overall record since 2005-06.
UNH’s record is its best over 35 games in 11 years.
Breen said anything can happen in a playoff game but “if we play the right way and give it all we have, I like our chances in Alfond Arena.”
UMaine is 12-2-2 at Alfond Arena while UNH is 6-10 on the road including three losses in its last four games away from the Whittemore Center.
UMaine is 7-2 vs. UNH in the Hockey East playoffs.
“It’s always a battle playing New Hampshire,” said UMaine graduate student left wing Ben Poisson. “They’re a hard team. They allow among the lowest shots-against total (23.5 per game) in the country. So it’s going to be about getting inside (in the low slot) and outworking them. If we compete and follow our structure, we’ll be alright.”
Mike Souza’s Wildcats have been led by forwards Ryan Conmy (14 goals, 17 assists), Cy LeClerc (10 & 18), Morgan Winters (10 & 12), Liam Devlin (13 & 7) and Harrison Blaisdell (11 & 3) along with defensemen Colton Huard (5 & 17), Luke Reid (1 & 15) and third-team All-Hockey East choice Alex Gagne (1 & 13).
For the Black Bears, the Nadeaus are followed on the stat sheet by Breen (8 & 20), Scott (14 & 12) and Donavan Houle (9 & 14). The top-scoring defensemen are Brandon Chabrier (6 & 15), Brandon Holt (4 & 11) and junior co-captain David Breazeale (2 & 6).
