The University of Maine’s hockey team continued to drop down the Pairwise Rankings after the weekend’s split against visiting Northeastern.
UMaine, which had been fifth three weeks ago, is now ninth in the rankings which mimic the NCAA’s selection process for the 16-team NCAA tournament.
The six conference tournament winners earn automatic bids and there are 10 at-large berths. If the NCAA tournament field was selected right now, UMaine would be in even if six teams ranked below them in the Pairwise Rankings had won their conference tournaments.
Barely.
It is highly unlikely that all six tournaments would have low-seeded winners.
But the Black Bears can’t concern themselves with the Pairwise Rankings.
They have to find a way to get back on a winning track and it has to be right away.
UMaine snapped its three-game losing streak on Friday night with 5-1 victory over the red-hot Huskies, who had won seven of their previous eight games.
But the score was misleading.
Freshman goalie Albin Boija was forced to stop three breakaways, including a penalty shot, and the Black Bears were opportunistic.
The good news on Friday night was that two of UMaine’s top three scorers snapped goal-scoring droughts. Senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen scored the all-important third goal to give UMaine a 3-1 lead. He hadn’t scored a goal in his previous nine games.
And his freshman linemate, Bradly Nadeau, scored a pair of goals after going nine games without one.
Unfortunately for the Black Bears, they couldn’t build off that momentum on Saturday night, being shut out at home for the first time since Dec. 3, 2021 (1-0 to Vermont in overtime), 4-0.
It was UMaine’s second home loss in its last four home games after being unbeaten at Alfond Arena (9-0-2).
Providence erased three one-goal deficits to beat UMaine 4-3 in overtime three weekends ago to snap the home unbeaten streak after UMaine had earned a 2-1 win the previous night behind a stellar performance by Boija.
The simple truth is that Providence and Northeastern are better than UMaine right now.
They have more experience, more depth and are used to winning.
Providence’s players averaged 74.8 career games under their belts compared to UMaine’s 55. Providence’s defensemen had an edge over UMaine’s 87.1-47.0.
The Friars had eight National Hockey League draft choices in their lineup and UMaine has just one in Bradly Nadeau.
Northeastern had a 75-58 edge in career games per player and had six NHL draft picks.
In their wins, Providence and Northeastern were able to generate productive forechecks against UMaine’s mobile but undersized defense corps and neutralize the top line of Breen between the Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh, due to its forecheck and making sure they had numbers on the defensive side of the puck.
If UMaine played Providence or Northeastern in a best-of-seven series like they use in the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs, UMaine wouldn’t win either series.
But college hockey is about single elimination and UMaine has proven capable of beating both in a one-game scenario. The Black Bears are capable of beating anyone in a one-game deal.
In between those two series, UMaine got swept at New Hampshire but played one of its worst games of the year in a 6-2 Friday night loss and took two five-minute major penalties in the 5-2 setback on Saturday. The skidding Wildcats were desperate for wins and played that way while being fueled by two sell-out crowds.
UMaine had beaten UNH 5-2 in Orono earlier.
It is important to note that even with their current skid, the Black Bears’ 19 wins (19-9-2) are the most since the 2011-12 team (23-14-3) which was the last one to reach the Hockey East semifinals and NCAA Tournament. And it has one of the youngest teams in the league with 13 freshmen and sophomores among its 20 players each night.
UMaine won only seven games two years ago in Ben Barr’s first season behind the bench.
They were picked to finish ninth in the preseason coaches poll and will finish anywhere from third to eighth.
If it finishes third or fourth, UMaine will receive a first-round bye and host a quarterfinal on Saturday, March 16. If it finishes fifth, it will receive a first-round bye and travel to play the fourth seed that Saturday. If it winds up sixth, seventh or eighth, it will host a first-round game on Wednesday, March 13.
UMaine is currently sitting third, two points ahead of Providence, three ahead of UMass and five ahead of UNH. Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime or shootout victory and one for an overtime or shootout loss.
UMaine controls its own destiny. It has two games at Vermont this weekend and hosts UMass for a pair in its regular season finale.
UVM is tied for the eighth and final home ice berth for the first round with UConn.
If the Black Bears are to finish strong, their best players will have to be at the top of their games, they will have to stay out of the penalty box, their defensemen will have to do a better job getting their shots to the net and not having them blocked and they will need supplemental scoring.
Sophomore left wing Parker Lindauer and freshman right wing Sully Scholle both scored in Friday night’s win. Barr said Lindauer was outstanding in Friday’s game and Scholle was great in Saturday’s loss.
Even though UMaine had 39 shots in the loss, Huskies freshman goalie Cameron Whitehead saw most of the shots and rarely had to make back-to-back saves. Barr didn’t feel his team got to the net front and that’s something they will have to do in their final four regular season games and in the playoffs.
Boija has played well and will need to continue to do so. Or, if senior Victor Ostman gets the call, he has to be solid.
