For the first time in over a decade, the University of Maine men’s hockey team will have a target on its back.
The Black Bears, who have shown an eight-win increase in each of the last two seasons, were picked to finish 12th in one national preseason poll (USCHO) and 11th in the other (USA Hockey/The Rink Live).
It is the highest a Black Bear team has been chosen in a national preseason poll since the 2010-11 team was selected seventh.
UMaine is coming off a 23-12-2 campaign which is the best since the 2006-07 team went 28-12-2. The Black Bears reached the Hockey East semifinals and the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
They lost to Boston University 4-1 in the Hockey East semifinals and 3-1 to Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Springfield regional.
To expect UMaine to have another eight-win improvement this year is a stretch but it is capable of reaching the 25-27 win plateau and making a deeper run in the postseason.
The Black Bears return nine of their top 12 scorers; their entire defense corps and goalie Albin Boija, whose 2.01 goals-against average was third-best among goalies at 64 Division I schools a year ago and tops among freshmen.
The Black Bears allowed 2.54 goals per game last season which was 14th best in the country.
With the maturation of the defense corps and Boija and the insistence of the coaching staff to have the forwards be conscientious on the defensive side of the puck, the goals-against-average should drop.
The Black Bears did lose 36.1 percent of their goal production so topping the list of questions about this team is can they score enough to carve out wins especially against the heavyweights on their schedule?
Not only are they playing two games apiece against Boston College and Boston University, picked one-two in the preseason Hockey East polls and second and third in the national polls, the Black Bears will also play a pair of non-conference games apiece against defending national champ Denver and 2022-23 NCAA titleist Quinnipiac.
UMaine was picked third in the Hockey East preseason poll and fourth in the coaches poll.
The Black Bears lost leading scorer and first round NHL draft pick Bradly Nadeau (19 goals, 27 assists, 46 points) to the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes but the next three point-producers are back in Nadeau’s older brother Josh Nadeau (18-27-46), graduate student co-captain and center Lynden Breen (9-21-30) and senior center Harrison Scott (15-12-27).
Josh Nadeau was a third team All-Hockey East choice and preseason All-HE selection.
And they have added four transfer forwards in Ross Mitton, Colgate’s leading scorer last season; UMass’ Taylor Makar; UMass Lowell’s Owen Fowler and Clarkson’s Charlie Russell.
“We have some guys who may not have put up crazy numbers last year that are going to excel this year with another year under their belt and more maturity,” said Breen. “And we have guys who are coming in from other programs. Usually, when you change programs, change systems and environments, you have a breakout year as well.”
Breen, a 21-goal scorer two years ago, Nadeau and Scott are all capable of producing 20-goal seasons.
Junior winger Thomas Freel (6-16-22), sophomore winger Sully Scholle (7-4-11) and senior center and alternate captain Nolan Renwick (2-9-11) are all potential double-digit goal producers.
Renwick was hampered by an ankle injury last season that sidelined him for 12 games. He had nine goals two seasons ago.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Makar was a 10-goal scorer two years ago at UMass and provides UMaine with some needed size up front.
Fowler had 5-7-12 in 33 games as a freshman at UMass Lowell two years ago but missed last season due to injury.
Mitton had 11-19-30 for Colgate in 2023-24 and is another one with double-digit goal scoring potential.
Russell appeared in seven games for Clarkson before leaving to play in the United States Hockey League where he had 12-10-22 in 32 games for Green Bay.
Junior Nicholas Niemo and sophomore Anthony Calafiore each had 2-2-4 a year ago and junior Aidan Carney, son of former UMaine All-American defenseman and long-time National Hockey Leaguer Keith Carney, returns after missing last year due to injury.
Carney had 2-1-5 two years ago as a dependable fourth-liner and his 6-4, 210-pound frame will be useful up front.
Oskar Komarov and fellow freshman Thomas Pichette each had noteworthy seasons in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League last season as Komarov was Langley’s second-leading point-producer with 18-21-39 in 53 regular season games and Pichette was Penticton’s No. 3 scorer with 18-24-42 in 53 games.
UMaine fourth-year head coach Ben Barr will be looking for more offense from his seasoned defense corps even though there is only one senior on the blue line in co-captain David Breazeale.
Juniors Brandon Chabrier (6-16-22) and Brandon Holt (4-11-15) were the only defensemen with double-digit points a year ago but Barr brought in transfer Frank Djurasevic and he should help out on the offensive end after notching 4-6-10 as a freshman in 35 games at Merrimack a year ago.
Juniors Grayson Arnott (2-3-5) and Luke Antonacci (0-5-5) should improve their numbers and sophomores Ryan Hopkins (1-2-3), Liam Lesakowski (0-2-2), Jack Dalton (no points) and Bodie Nobes (no points) will benefit from valuable experience they received last year.
Brian Morse will be the only freshman defenseman.
Barr feels this is his deepest team and said if everyone is 10 percent better than a year ago, “we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”
He said his Black Bears have to do a better job getting pucks to the net, especially from the point, and being better around the net as well.
“We need more of a net-front presence and we need everyone chipping in a little more,” he said.
Breazeale said when it comes to goal production, “we check a lot of boxes.”
He said they will need to be gritty around the net and score some “dirty goals” and he also said they will be capable of scoring off rush chances as well.
UMaine ranked 16th in the country with 3.22 goals per game.
The Black Bears will also need to improve their special teams which each finished 25th in the country with a 21.7 success rate on the power play and 80.6 percent efficiency rate on the penalty kill.
Boija had a 10-6-1 record and a .916 save percentage during his impressive freshman campaign and he will be backed up by freshmen Patriks Berzins and Gage Stewart.
As was the case last year, the Black Bears have just one NHL draft pick and that is Makar, a seventh round pick of the Colorado Avalanche where his brother, Cale, is one of the NHL’s top defenseman.
The teams picked ahead of them in the Hockey East coaches poll, Boston College, Boston University and Providence have 13,12 and 11 NHL draft picks, respectively.
“We play with a chip on our shoulders. We go into every weekend with that underdog mentality no matter who we are playing and if we bring that every single night, it’s only going to benefit us,” said Breazeale.
UMaine will open at home at 7 p.m. on Saturday against a quality American International College (Massachusetts) program from Atlantic Hockey that went 20-16-4 last year and reached the league tournament title game. AIC won conference titles in 2021-22 and 2018-19 and played in the NCAA Tournament regionals, upsetting top seed St. Cloud State in 2019.
