During the heyday of the University of Maine men’s hockey team, the Black Bears were involved in scintillating matchups when they and their opponents would both be ranked in the top 10 in the national polls.
But since the 2006-07 season, when UMaine made its last Frozen Four appearance, the Black Bears have rarely found themselves ranked that high.
The Hockey East Black Bears, under the direction of fourth-year head coach Ben Barr, have been in the top 10 most of this season and they will compete in a battle of top seven teams this weekend when they entertain defending national champion the University of Denver from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
Faceoff will be at 6 p.m. on Friday and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at Alfond Arena.
UMaine will bring a 12-game Alfond Arena unbeaten streak (11-0-1) dating back to last season into the series. The team, 12-3-2, is currently ranked seventh in both major polls while the 14-4 Pioneers are sixth in each.
UMaine is coming off a 4-2 loss to Bentley that snapped its seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) while Denver lost four of its last six before losing an exhibition game in a shootout to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ club hockey team.
UMaine holds a 12-9 edge over Denver in their all-time series.
“It’s going to be really cool,” said UMaine senior center and alternate captain Nolan Renwick. “We played them my sophomore year (3-1 loss in Denver) but we are a completely different team now.”
There are just seven Black Bears and six Pioneers remaining who played in that game.
“This one has been circled on everyone’s calendar. We’re looking forward to the challenge and having them in our building,” said UMaine senior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale. “You dream about these moments when you’re thinking about college hockey.”
While UMaine has undergone a rebuilding process under Barr that saw the Black Bears go from a seven-win team in 2021-22 to a 23-win team last season, head coach David Carle’s Pioneers have been a model of consistency among the nation’s elite programs.
They have won the NCAA title twice in the last three seasons and have gone 93-28-3 during that time for a 76.2 percent winning percentage.
They became the first program to reach double figures in NCAA championships last year with their 10th.
Last year, UMaine reached the Hockey East semifinals and the Hockey East tournament for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
Denver is ranked in the top 10 among the 64 Division I teams in five major categories while UMaine is in the top 10 in four.
Denver is tied for first in goals per game with four and is alone in first with its 29 percent success rate on the power play. The Pioneers are tied for seventh in goals allowed per game (2) and on the penalty kill (90.2 percent) and are ninth in face-off winning percentage (54.06).
UMaine is third in goals scored (3.88) and in goals allowed (1.76), fifth in power play percentage (85.7), and seventh in faceoff-winning percentage (54.1).
Denver has 13 National Hockey League draft choices compared with UMaine’s one, Taylor Makar.
The Pioneers have the nation’s leading scorer in senior winger Jack Devine, who has 27 points on two goals and 25 assists. The 2023-24 first team All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist had 27 goals and 29 assists a year ago.
Junior winger Aidan Thompson is tied for third in the country in scoring with 24 points on 11 goals and 15 assists.
Sophomore All-American defenseman Zeev Buium, who had 11 goals and 39 assists a year ago and has 20 points this season (4 & 16), is currently playing for Carle on Team USA at the World Junior (Under 20) Tournament in Ottawa. Both he and Carle will miss the series because Team USA will be playing in a Saturday semifinal after dispatching Switzerland in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Carter King (11 & 8) and Sam Harris (11 & 6) are the fourth and fifth leading point-getters and Harris and Thompson are tied for the team lead in power play goals with five each.
Harris tops the team with five game-winning goals.
Center Samu Salminen (6 & 6) has scored three goals in his last three games.
Sophomores Eric Pohlkamp (4 & 10) and Boston Buckberger (3 & 9) have been valuable point-producers on the blue line.
Senior goalie Matt Davis produced a magnificent performance in the NCAA Northeast Regional and Frozen Four, being named the Most Outstanding Player in each.
He compiled a 0.63 goals-against average and .979 save percentage in Denver’s four NCAA Tournament wins and had 35 stops in the 2-0 triumph over Boston College in the NCAA title game.
So far this season, he is 13-4 with a 2.06 GAA and a .918 save percentage.
Senior center Harrison Scott leads the Black Bears with 22 points on 12 goals and 10 assists. He is fourth in the country in goals per game at .71. Scott has six goals in his last five games and has six power play goals, which is second on the team to junior left wing Thomas Freel’s seven power play goals.
Freel is in a three-way tie for the national lead in power play goals.
Wingers Charlie Russell (4 & 13) and Makar (6 & 9), defenseman Brandon Holt (2 & 12) and winger Josh Nadeau (5 & 8) round out the top five. Defenseman Frank Djurasevic (4 & 8), Freel (8 & 4) and winger Owen Fowler (5 & 7) all have 12 points.
Djurasevic has three goals and three assists in his last six games.
UMaine sophomore goalie Albin Boija has the nation’s third-lowest goals-against average (1.63) to go with an 11-3-2 record and .927 save percentage.
