The Black Bears huddle for one last pep talk before the puck drops on a new season. (Photo Courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)

Moody clouds lingered over Central Maine on Saturday, but in no way did the gloomy weather dampen the excitement felt by Black Bear Nation. For Saturday was the long-awaited opening game of a new Black Bear hockey season, one overflowing with the possibilities of splendor.

Last season’s resurgence, coupled with this weekend’s 25th-anniversary celebration of Maine’s 1999 National Championship, had the program and fanbase reminiscing proudly on the past. While at the same time looking forward with rekindled hope for future championships, an aspiration that feels more realistic than ever.

The Black Bears buzzed while the Alfond Faithful bayed during Maine’s 6-0 trouncing of the American International College Yellow Jackets that opened the new season in style at a sold-out Alfond Arena.

It didn’t take long before the party Black Bear Nation had been longing for commenced.

Senior Taylor Makar lit that fuse, scoring just 1:35 into the new season. The celebration inside the Alfond never stopped, continuing deep into the night.

Joining the team from Hockey East rival Massachusetts via the transfer portal this offseason, Makar’s first shift in a Maine sweater could not have gone any better.

Like being shot out of a cannon, the Alberta native took a tape-to-tape pass from his centerman Nolan Renwick in the neutral zone in stride and motored his way past the AIC defense in the blink of an eye. A quick flick of the wrist from the right circle sniped AIC netminder Chase Clark glove side.

Makar’s first shift in his new colors and the Black Bear’s first shot of the campaign sent the Alfond Faithful into its first rapture of the year.

“I think I did [that same shot] in a scrimmage a couple days ago. I knew the goalie was a southpaw. It was a great pass by him [Nolan Renwick].” Makar said.

Wheeling away to celebrate under the balcony of students that once ruthlessly taunted him as an opponent, Makar proudly flashed the scripted ‘Maine’ on his sweater for all to see.

“I feel like a true Black Bear now.” Makar beamed.

As the sign once you cross the Piscataqua River Bridge into Maine says, “Welcome Home” Taylor, the Alfond Faithful are sure glad to have you.

The newly formed line’s left-winger, Makar, joined fellow transfer portal acquisition from Colgate right-winger Ross Mitton and senior center Nolan Renwick in a dynamic trio that stole the spotlight Saturday evening.

Taylor Makar celebrates with Nolan Renwick under a buoyant Balcony. (Photo Courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics)

Though only put together for a couple of weeks now, the line combined for four goals and six assists on the evening, with Makar and Renwick both netting two and Mitton assisting three times. Makar also registered an assist, while Renwick added two apples to his name.

“We found a pretty instant connection; those are two pretty easy guys to play with. We have a lot of similarities, they’re big, fast, strong players. It was a real treat to play with them tonight, so hopefully, we can keep up the success moving forward.” Renwick said about his linemates.

Makar would net his and his new team's second goal early into the middle period when Mitton, moving north with speed out of Maine’s defensive zone, took a hit to make a play shoveling the puck up to Makar. Able to spin off a check, Makar poked the puck up to Renwick, who was also hurtling up ice. Renwick made a deft forehand-to-backhand move to squeeze the puck through Clark’s five-hole. The puck lay tantalizingly in the blue paint, waiting for Makar to pounce first, tapping the puck home from close range.

The Alfond erupts after Makar's first goal. (Photo Courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)

With Makar at 6’3” 210 lbs, Renwick at 6’2” 215 lbs, and Mitton at 5’10” 200 lbs, the line demonstrated that it is so much more than just the checking line it may have appeared to some on paper. While their powerful physicality was on display with their relentlessly tenacious hounding of Yellow Jacket puck carriers, it was their rapid speed and silky skill that ruthlessly executed time and again Saturday night.

This exciting mix of brawn and blitz enabled the line to batter the puck out of AIC’s possession before quickly getting it unstuck from the boards and taking it directly toward the netfront with purpose.

If last season’s team sometimes faltered by being rubbed off the puck too often, this new-look line demonstrated a fresh style of attack with their stingy puck strength.

“They can protect the puck and make plays.” Maine Head Coach Ben Barr said about the line. “They were outstanding tonight. The first shift they started, and they didn’t really stop the whole night, so that was good to see from them.”

This combination of size and skill was especially apparent for Maine’s third goal when Mitton crunched an AIC puck carrier off the puck before the Yellow Jacket could clear it out of Maine’s offensive zone. Defensemen Frank Djurasevic, another transfer acquisition, took the puck from the point to the slot, luring in AIC’s defensemen before dishing it to Renwick to scorch a one-timer that found twine seconds into the third period.

A few minutes later, Renwick once again set up shop at the right face-off circle to blister home another one-timer, this time from an inch-perfect seam pass threaded by Mitton.

“Both beautiful passes, Franky [Djurasevic] getting offensive, came down, it was a quick two-on-one, fed a nice one over [to me]. Ross’ was pretty special. He slid it through pretty much two defenders right on my tape, so all I had to do was put it in the back of the net. My job was pretty easy.” Renwick said about his two almost identical third-period goals just minutes apart.

Nolan Renwick had himself quite the night netting two goals and three assists. (Photo Courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)

Renwick, Maine’s third top-scorer two seasons ago (9-11-20), struggled last season to make a similar impact (2-9-11). Plagued with a foot injury for much of the prior campaign, he has already matched his two-goal total from the previous year. The importance the Saskatchewan native has for this team cannot be understated.

“It’s good to see Nolan get rewarded, he had a really good game.” Barr said about his alternate captain. “Keep him healthy, and hopefully he will have a good year.”

While Renwick, the ultimate team player, will be relieved to re-find his scoring touch of seasons past, he was clearly overjoyed in helping his new linemates shine in their first game at the Alfond in the home whites of Maine.

“That was honestly one of the coolest moments,” Renwick said. “This is my fourth year here, and I’ve played a lot of games here, but after every goal we scored, seeing the smiles on their faces, coming back to the bench and the energy that they had and the excitement that they had was pretty cool to see them experience that. I always tell people, [if] you want to have fun playing college hockey, come be a UMaine Black Bear.”

It’s clear that Makar, already halfway to equalling his goal-scoring tally from last season at UMass, is undoubtedly having fun being a Black Bear.

“I’ve been here at [Alfond Arena] on the other side, which is so intimidating, but coming out on the right side is super fun. Having the fans [support us]  like that really helps us.”

While it was the Makar—Renwick—Mitton line that stole the show, the rest of the Black Bears all  gave a very good account of themselves, playing the gritty, persistent, and hard-working game that the Alfond Faithful expects from them. Maine delivered a simple game, allowing for their superior work ethic on and off the puck to gain traction in the game.

“The work ethic has always got to be our identity and whether we have it or we don’t have it, you work back above it and take away their time and space.” Barr said. “ We did that at times, but sometimes we didn’t.”

Sophmore Sully Scholle looks to get open. (Photo Courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)

Keeping pucks away from center ice, getting pucks deep, working hard to retrieve the puck, and supporting the play enabled Maine to keep AIC penned back in their own end. The relentless hounding by wave after wave of Black Bears soon ground the Yellow Jackets down.

On the defensive side, Maine had great success clogging up center ice, standing strong on their blueline, and making it very difficult for the Yellow Jackets to enter the zone with speed in numbers. When AIC did get pucks into Maine’s defensive zone, the Black Bears succeeded in quickly breaking it back out without too much fuss. For the most part, this kept AIC to the perimeter and without much of a sniff around Maine’s netfront, enabling the Black Bears to dominate the game for the first two periods.

“At the end of the day, they did a much better job at getting pucks in on us than we did on them.” AIC Head Coach Eric Lang admitted. “In the neutral zone, we just couldn’t stop them. Up front, our F1 and F2 couldn’t defend the red line. They were able to get the red line too much easy access. They rimmed a lot of pucks on us, making it tough for us to break the puck out. I thought we wore down as the game went along, and I think it has a direct correlation to how many pucks they got in behind our D.”

Lynden Breen centered a line with Josh Nadeau and Sully Scholle. Harrison Scott was between wingers Thomas Freel and Charlie Russell. While the fourth line was made up of Owen Fowler, Oskar Komarov, and Anthony Calafiore.

Meanwhile, David Breazeale and Frank Djurasevic were the top defensive pair. The two Brandon’s [Holt and Chabrier] were often paired together. While Liam Lesakowski, Grayson Arnott, and Luke Antonacci filled out the rest of Maine’s experienced blueliners.

Last season’s transfer sensation senior Harrison Scott picked up right where he left off, tallying his first goal of the season by controlling a bouncing puck in the high-slot before flicking a scorcher top-shelf where mama hides the cookies.

The Naked Five went on their sixth and final lap around an overjoyed Alfond Arena midway through the third. On a powerplay, Frank Djurasevic's shot from the point was artfully deflected at chest height by Thomas Freel, handcuffing Adam Manji, who replaced Chase Clark in the AIC net during the second intermission.

Barr was very pleased by his team’s showing through the first two-and-a-half periods, which limited AIC’s chances to the perimeter. But as the third period wore on and Maine’s lead widened, the Black Bears began to lose a bit of focus and allowed the Yellow Jackets the chance to sting.

“Once we got four or five there, it got a little loose. Albin [Boija] made some saves. But for two and a half periods there, I thought we limited their chances, and the guys worked pretty hard.” Barr reflected.

In the future, Barr will want to see his team keep their foot  firmly on the gas. As an added  dimension of the team’s culture this season, Barr is looking to nurture an identity of ruthlessness. A complete sixty minute performance is now the clear expectation from the coach.

“The last ten, fifteen minutes were just okay, but up until that point it was pretty good. We’re going to have to do that for sixty minutes, not forty-five or fifty going forward.” Barr said.

When AIC did create chances (17 shots on goal, 9 of which came in the third period), sophomore netminder Albin Boija remained unphased, making all the saves his team needed and earning the third-collegiate shutout of the Swede’s young career.

Albin Boija stood tall in net, earning his third-career shutout for Maine. (Photo Courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics)

“He’s just steady, he makes the saves he needs to make, he’s just calm back there. He’s a really calming presence for us.” Barr said about Boija.

The fact that star players like Josh Nadeau and Lynden Breen haven’t been mentioned yet shows the abundance of depth this season’s Black Bears possess. The two New Brunswick natives by no means played poorly, but being overshadowed by a few new faces is certainly no negative for Maine. Nadeau still had one point on Saturday night, assisting for Scott’s second period goal.

Each game will need new characters to step up and become the heroes of that night’s story. They will all get their chance to shine.

It’s a long season still to come. There will be tougher tests to face. There will be ups and there will be downs.

But enjoy this one, Black Bear Nation. What a way to start.

Maine next returns to the ice to face off with Army in an exhibition game on Saturday afternoon at the Alfond.

Who’s turn will it be to take center stage then?

The Black Bears were all smiles after an opening night romp against AIC. (Photo Courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)