University of Maine hockey captain Jakub Sirota didn’t want to come back to the team this season.
The graduate student defenseman from the Czech Republic said last season was “very difficult with the team we had.” The Black Bears had a new coach in former University of Massachusetts associate head coach Ben Barr and several players left during the season.
UMaine went 7-22-4 overall, 5-17-2 in Hockey East last year. Merrimack ousted UMaine 6-2 in the first round of the league playoffs.
“It was very discouraging,” Sirota said. “But I was very happy with the coaching staff and the way they treated the players. They want us to succeed.”
The coaching staff was ultimately one of the biggest factors in Sirota’s decision to come back this season.
“I talked with [Barr] after the season and I knew I would have the opportunity to be a big leader on the team and help them,” said Sirota, who ultimately realized it would be nice to return to the team.
So far, that decision appears to have been the right one.
The Black Bears are currently tied with Providence for sixth place in the Hockey East standings and are assured of a top-8 finish in the 11-team league after they were chosen to finish last in the preseason coaches poll. At the very least, they will host a first round game next Wednesday.
They conclude the regular season this weekend when they host UMass on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m., including Senior Night on Saturday.
UMaine is 15-13-5 overall and 9-9-4 in Hockey East. The team’s current seven-game unbeaten streak (4-0-3) is tied for second-best in the country behind Quinninipiac’s 10-game streak (10-0-0).
A year after nearly leaving the team, Sirota said deciding to return to UMaine “was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, along with coming here the first time.”
Sirota is having an impressive season. He has a career-high five goals, including two game-winners, and he also has eight assists in 33 games.
His 13 points leads the UMaine defensemen. He has blocked 34 shots, which is third most among all Black Bear players.
Barr insists that without Sirota buying into what he and his staff were trying to accomplish, “any of the steps we’ve taken wouldn’t have happened.”
“He came back and he didn’t have to. He could have gone anywhere. Any other school would have taken him,” said Barr. “But he came back because he cares. He has grown a lot as a person and helped our program grow because of it.
Junior center and assistant captain Lynden Breen said after former head coach Red Gendron collapsed and died while playing golf at the Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono on April 9, 2021, Sirota was one of the leaders the team relied heavily upon.
He added that Sirota has been a “huge part” of the team’s resurgence.
“We’re heading in the right direction lately and all the credit goes to him for his leadership. We have so many young guys. He has been a hell of a leader on and off the ice and made our jobs easier so we just have to go out and play,” Breen said.
Sirota came to UMaine for the second semester of the 2018-19 season and is the only player left from that team.
He has now played 127 career games and has 12 goals and 40 assists. He is plus-12 in plus-minus and has blocked 101 shots in his career.
Plus-minus refers to a category in which a player receives a plus-one if he is on the ice when his team scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal and a minus-one if the opponent scores one.
“He has been here a long time and has shown us the ropes,” said freshman defenseman Grayson Arnott, Sirota’s defense partner. “He is cool, calm and collected on the ice and a pretty chilled guy off the ice, too.”
Junior goalie Victor Ostman called Sirota a natural leader.
“He is a great hockey player and a great person, too. Having him come back was huge for us,” Ostman said.
Sirota said he has reaped a lot of benefits from his time at UMaine.
“It has given me a lot of experience,” said the 24-year-old Sirota, who experienced losing a coach, the COVID pandemic, and rebuilding years during his tenure at UMaine.
“It gives me a lot of value to my life. It’s amazing I can be a part of this season with the program kind of building back up. I’m really fortunate to be part of it,” Sirota said.
Sirota has a lot to look forward to. His family has made the trek from the Czech Republic for this weekend’s series, and UMaine hosts a playoff game next Wednesday.
“To have an extra game in front of our fans would be amazing,” he said.
He will be missing one family member as his grandfather died last Friday. Despite playing with a heavy heart, Sirota went out and scored the game-winning goal in a 6-3 win over Boston College that night.
“That shows you how great a person he is,” said Breen. “To fight through something like that is never easy. But no matter what is going on in his life, he comes to the rink and gives it his all every day. He leads us in the right direction.”
In addition to Sirota, the other Black Bear seniors who will be honored on Saturday night will be Dawson Bruneski, Didrik Henbrant, Ben Poisson, Matthew Fawcett and Justin Michaelian.