University of Maine hockey fans have gotten used to watching Bradly Nadeau unleash his National Hockey League caliber shot and use his speed and elusiveness to evade an opponent and make a play.
Another side of Nadeau’s game has been surfacing lately and that was evident in the 4-1 loss to Boston University in the Hockey East semifinals last week: a physical component.
Nadeau landed some solid body checks on the forecheck during the BU game.
“You don’t get much (open) ice so you have to fight for every inch out there. Sometimes that’s what you have to do to create scoring chances,” said Nadeau, UMaine’s leading scorer entering Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. NCAA Regional first round game against ECAC champion Cornell at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
Denver and UMass will open the tourney at 2 p.m. and the winners will face off at 4 p.m. on Saturday for the right to play in the Frozen Four in Saint Paul, MN on April 11-13.
“Towards the end of the year, you get more into it physically,” Nadeau said. “You get scoring chances when you keep working hard. With the line we have, it helps me and our line create offense. It’s something we have to keep progressing on in order to keep producing and help the team, offensively.”
Nadeau, who has 19 goals and 27 assists, is on a line with his older brother Josh, a freshman right winger and the team’s No. 2 scorer (18 & 27), and junior center Nolan Renwick (2 & 9).
The Nadeaus have also been centered by junior Harrison Scott (14 & 12) and senior co-captain Lynden Breen (9 & 21) earlier this season.
“Everyone is good on our team. It doesn’t matter who we play with. If we work hard, we’ll keep producing,” said Nadeau.
The game with Cornell will feature contrasting styles.
Cornell is the stingiest team among the 64 Division I programs, allowing only 1.88 goals per game.
In addition to being a stout defensive team, the Big Red uses its size to cycle the puck on the forecheck.
Among the 16 NCAA Tournament teams, Cornell is the heaviest at 192.4 pounds per player and tied for second tallest at nearly 6-foot-1.
UMaine has the lightest team among the 16 at 186.6 pounds per man and is tied with Michigan State and Omaha in lowest height at 6 feet.
Cornell’s top six scoring forwards average 6-foot-3 while UMaine’s defense corps averages out to a little under six feet.
“We’re going to need to play fast,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “We can’t allow their forecheck to catch up. Playing fast is the strength of our team. It closes (the opponents’) time and space (with the puck).
“That’s our advantage. When you get a chance to get to the puck and get it up and out of the (defensive) zone you have to do that. If the puck is down in the corner and they have three guys in there who are 6-foot-3, that’s their advantage. Then they get to the net, get the puck to the point and get the puck to the net. They’re really good at that,” said Barr.
He said under head coach Mike Schafer, Cornell is one of the “best-coached teams every year. They never beat themselves and they’re extremely hard and heavy. It’ll be a really good test for us.”
“They have a lot of depth. They play four lines and six defensemen and they have a goalie (Ian Shane) who has been standing on his head this year,” said UMaine junior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale. “We’re going to have to own the net fronts and the corners. We’re going to have to manage the puck well and play heavy and hard.”
Nadeau said against a tight defensive team like Cornell, the Black Bears are going to have to “keep it simple. We have to put shots on net. With the offense we have, we should be able to score some goals.”
To complement the Nadeaus, Breen and Scott, Donavan Houle has produced nine goals and 14 assists for the 23-11-2 Black Bears. The top scorers on defense are Brandon Chabrier (6 & 16) and Brandon Holt (4 & 11). Freshman goalie Albin Boija is 10-6-1 with a 2.01 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
Cornell, 21-6-6, has been led up front by Gabriel Seger (14 & 28), Dalton Bancroft (12 & 19), Kyle Penney (9 & 17), Jonathan Castagna (11 & 14) and Ryan Walsh (12 & 10). Ben Robertson (5 & 18) and Tim Rego (2 & 8) are their leading point-producers from the blue line in front of ECAC Goaltender of the Year Shane (21-4-6, 1.70, .922).
