Coming off a red-hot start to their season, it seemed like it was going to be going more of Maine's way just seconds into their first game at Agganis Arena on Friday Night.

But mistakes and bad penalties sunk the #9 Maine Black Bears as the #8 Boston University Terriers showed precisely why you cannot hand a team as dangerous as BU any advantage.

They made the Black Bears pay dearly.

High off their momentous weekend at home against Boston College that landed Maine a #9 ranking in USCHO.com's national poll — their highest in over a decade — the Black Bears knew an equally excellent performance would be needed on Commonwealth Ave against last season's Hockey East champs.

Ben Barr and his staff stuck with a mostly unchanged lineup from the previous weekend, highlighting the Black Bear's strength in depth, which proved vital against BC. The only change came as freshman defenseman Bodie Nobes was called in to replace Grayson Arnott, who left last Saturday's game with an apparent arm injury, joining Nolan Renwick and Aiden Carney on the injured list of banged-up Bears.

In the heart of Beantown, Agganis Arena saw Black Bear fans turn up in big numbers as white and blue-clad supporters occupied entire sections of red seats. Joining them was a pair of Maine hockey legends as 1993 National Champion captain and current Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery joined recent graduate and current Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman to cheer on their alma mater. The influx of Black Bear Nation gave Agganis Arena a homely feeling, even when surrounded by the — somewhat filled — sections of Terrier fans dressed in their classic red and white.

But it was the Black Bears' roar that out-cheered BU's noisy and boisterous student section just seconds into the first frame. Off the opening faceoff, the Black Bears executed their game plan of getting the puck in deep and grinding away at BU down-low. Behind the Terrier's net, Harrison Scott was able to force a BU body off the puck, where Thomas Freel, close behind, swooped up the loose puck and was able to squeeze it by the BU netminder on the wraparound to shock the late arriving Terrier fans just fourteen seconds into the game.

But as quickly as Maine took advantage, things started to spiral downhill.

Not even a minute after Freel's goal, Lyden Breen took a hooking penalty, sending Boston University's incredibly talented power play to the ice. Mackin Celebrini took advantage of the BU man-advantage. Many consider Celebrini, the seventeen-year-old rookie, to be the best player in college hockey and most likely to be picked 1st in the NHL draft this spring.

I overheard some BU season ticket holders compare him to Jack Eichel, some adamant that he may be better than the former Terrier turned NHL star.

Celebrini quickly showed his prowess on the early power play, rocketing a one-timer past Victor Ostman. Maine's netminder couldn't quite get across to the nearside post quick enough, as the BU goal took away Maine's momentum as quickly as they had gained it.

Before the game and all week long, Barr stressed the importance of not allowing BU to showcase their speed and skill in open ice. Barr wanted his team to play with the puck below the top of the faceoff circles in their offensive zone, forcing BU into a grinding style of game that would not allow the Terriers to get their legs moving and showcase their speed in a back-and-forth type of game that they excel at.

Maine's best form of defense would need to be offense, getting the puck in deep and wearing down BU in the corners. Keeping the elite Terrier goal scorers two hundred feet away from Maine's net.

Boston University's threat in open ice immediately became apparent. Even when the Black Bears had BU pinned into the corners, the Terriers could, in the blink of an eye, move the puck with great speed and precision up the ice and into the Black Bear's zone.

BU's excellence at stretching the play in a flash on transitions put the young Maine defense into firefighting mode all night. Added to this was a myriad of puck-handling mistakes and sloppy passes from Maine on the breakout and through the neutral zone. This recipe led to the Terriers panicking the Black Bears all night, who were desperately scrambling to stop the BU attack from darting through the neutral zone and towards the Maine net.

By being on the back foot and struggling to keep up with the blitz of Terriers flying through the open ice, Maine's only response to stop the onrush was to take penalty after penalty. Exposed Black Bears committed reaching stick infractions and holding calls that sent Black Bear after Black Bear to the sin-bin in the second period. The captain, David Breazeale, took three penalties Friday night alone, but the most infuriating call was a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty early in the second.

It wasn't just one of those too-many-men penalties that happens when a player either coming off or onto the ice on a change inadvertently interferes with the puck. It was a significant brain fart as six Maine skaters were in on the play at the opposite side of the ice from Maine's bench. When the penalty was called, the six looked around, confused and bewildered, before realizing their major counting error. Behind the bench, Barr could only look down and disappointingly shake his head, surly furious on the inside. The penalty summed up Maine's night, with mental mistakes pilling on top of physical ones.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

These mental blunders, as well as puck-handling mistakes, compounded Maine's exposure and allowed Boston University's power play to get far too many opportunities to show off their talent.

Already scoring one PP goal in the first, the BU power play unit slotted home two more in quick succession in the second frame. A centering pass was deflected in from close range, putting the home side in the lead. Just two minutes later, the Terriers went up 3-1 with another power-play goal from a wrist shot that had eyes for the back of the net past a screened Ostman.

The Black Bears were being run ragged.

Maine was not able to be overly successful in grinding down low against the big BU defenseman. Since their early goal, it could not muster any real periods of sustained pressure on the Terrier net.

The Black Bears did, however, have a couple of excellent, flash-in-the-pan scoring chances, mainly created by the creative passing of the Nadeau brothers and Lynden Breen, but were shut down by excellent saves from BU goaltender Mathieu Caron. However, these chances were too far and few between, as the Black Bears could only create short bursts of offensive pressure and could not set up any sustained zone time through the first two periods.

Nonetheless, the Black Bears could feel fortunate to only be down by two goals heading into the third period. All evening, Victor Ostman did what Victor Ostman does, making big save after big save, including denying a couple breakaways and odd-man rushes to keep his team hanging in the game by a thread heading into the third.

Maine's response to start the third period was actually excellent. Certainly sparked by strong words from the coaching staff in the dressing room during the intermission, the Black Bears came out fast and hard.

Maine's power play, which has struggled so far this season, finally looked dangerous in the third period. While they didn't score, they were able to get Maine's offensive mojo into the game.

This carried into even-strength play as Maine looked more energetic and dangerous by having more success at putting pucks in deep and grinding away down low. The Black Bears finally maintained sustained pressure around the BU net during even strength. A good cycle game saw Maine put the puck into open areas of ice and, time and again, beating the BU defensemen to it. Able to continue this cycle and move the Terrier defense around, the Black Bears created their best goal-scoring opportunities of the night and began to chip away at BU's momentum and lead on the scoreboard.

This hard work battling away in the corners paid off, giving the Black Bears hope and cutting the deficit to just one midway through the third period. It was Thomas Freel once more, this time on the power play. Good puck movement allowed Josh Nadeau to fire a shot from the slot before the Scottish-born, Canadian-raised Freel pounced on the puck for another dirty goal at the back post. BU's lead was now just by a goal with plenty of time left in the game.

The goal further energized the Black Bears on the ice and in the stands as Maine began to push for the game-tying chance. This offensive mindset, however, once again left the Maine backline exposed as BU could turn a Maine chance into one of their own in a split second with their terrific stretch passes. BU's threat was always present, lurking over the Black Bears all night.

The Terriers had plenty of grade-a opportunities to put the game to bed late in the third period. Still, Ostman and the Black Bear defense held firm, bending but not breaking. On the other end, Maine had a hard time getting pucks through on net as BU repeatedly sacrificed their body to block shots and utilized their sticks to disrupt penetrating passes, breaking up play.

But it was too little too late for Maine as time ran out on the Black Bears' comeback.

With seconds on the clock and Ostman on the bench, the Terriers forced a turnover. Mackin Celebrini just narrowly missed scoring his second of the night, glancing the puck off the side of the empty net as the clock ran down to zero.

BU 3 — Maine 2.

It was a game that saw Maine start so brightly, only to sabotage their momentum with sloppy errors and an inability to stay out of the penalty box.

But the Black Bears also showed plenty of positives Friday night. They held the Terriers scoreless at even strength and looked perfectly capable of scoring against them once they established their game plan of grinding BU down. Asserting themselves and even outplaying BU in the final minutes.

It wasn't the Terriers that beat the Black Bears, but Maine that beat themselves. In a roundabout way, that is actually a positive.

Maine showed that at even strength, they are perfectly able to play with these guys, shutting down BU's scoring and creating plenty of chances themselves. They just need to stay out of the box and reduce their errors.

Maine showed a lot of character and heart in Friday's third period. As long as they can put together that kind of performance for sixty minutes Saturday night, the Black Bears will be okay and have every chance to beat these puppies.

It was Maine's first game-one loss of the season; watching how they react to this adversity will be interesting. The Bears should come out gunning Saturday evening, pissed off and with a chip on their shoulder.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Time for redemption.