Bananas stares down Merrimack before Saturday’s game. (Photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics)

After just about every practice, you can usually find Thomas Freel continuing to put in the hard yards, set up in his office — the net front.

He’s clocked countless hours of repetition honing his hand-eye coordination, practicing deft deflections from goal crease screens shot after shot in an echoing empty Alfond Arena when nobody is watching has paid off immensely to his dependable execution when the barn is filled to the brim.

The junior forward’s hard work behind the scenes has rewarded the Aberdeen, Scotland native with a blistering start to the season. Freel has now scored six times in the Black Bears’ first seven games played. This includes twice in Maine’s Saturday night 6-0 thumping of the Merrimack Warriors to seal a weekend sweep by an aggregate score of 11-0 over the two games.

“If I can get the team just get one extra goal on the powerplay every couple of weeks because of the time I’m spending doing tips after practice, then it’s all worth it,” Freel said after Saturday’s game.

Every one of Freel’s goals this year has been on the power play, and all have come from either a deflection or a rebound by the goal mouth.

“[The net front is] somewhere I’ve always kind of found to be one of my strengths. A place I really take pride in being. It worked for me in juniors, and took a couple of years for me to adapt it to the college level; timing is a little different, physicality is different, obviously. So, thankfully, things are starting to work for me now,” Freel said.

Freel didn’t play hockey until moving from Scotland to the Ottawa area at around seven years old, a very late start for a player at this level. Through his first two seasons at Maine, Freel scored eight times in 73 games wearing the Maine script. Now, in his junior season, he has already scored six in seven games, leading the team in goals.

A Scottish braveheart, Freel is a constant pest in the face of opposition goaltenders and defensemen alike.  He must always be a shade of black and blue, routinely getting whacked and thwacked while fighting in the net front, his long red hair usually pushed down in front of his eyes by the time his battle in the trenches ends after each shift.

But steadfast as Khatahdin and as hard as Scottish rain, Freel refuses to be evicted from his establishment in the goal crease. Hopefully he has a deed for his purchase because Freel owns the net front.

“He’s just the definition of a guy that’s going to be gritty in the net front. He’s a big-time player that’s going to step up when the team needs him the most. You see all his power play goals. He’s just a phenomenal player, puts the puck in the back of the net, what else can you ask,” Harrison Scott, who assisted on all three of Freel’s goals this weekend, said about his linemate.

Freel, on the other hand, chooses to credit his linemates on the power play for his boatload of tallies this season.

“The guys around me are doing a great job moving the puck and getting the puck to the net. I’m just trying to find space, and fortunately, the pucks are just bouncing to me right now,” Freel said.

Freel’s first goal of the evening was Maine’s second of the night. Late in the first period, Taylor Makar pounced on a loose puck trickling through the slot. Makar wasn’t able to score, his shot springing off Michael Emerson's right pad, which kicked out onto Freel, who banged home the goal.

Harrison Scott celebrates with goalscorer Thomas Freel. The duo combined for 12 points over the weekend. (Photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics)

“Taylor, he reads the game so well, he’s so quick on his feet, so he bounced to that loose puck fast, and I just kind of went to the net with my stick on the ice, hoping for something to pop out and fortunately, it did,” Freel said about Maine’s second goal.

His second tally, Maine’s fifth, would come from a nifty drop-pass interchange above the circles from Brandon Holt to Scott and then to Charlie Russell in the second period. Russell fired the puck low and hard, where Freel, setting up a screen in front of the net, deflected the ankle-biting wrister past a helpless Emerson in goal.

Muscle memory it was a goal Freel could score in his sleep.

“He’s worked on that a thousand times in his head and on the ice,” Barr said.

In the right place at the right time, at the moment everything is going right for Maine.

Meanwhile, for Merrimack, it’s been quite the opposite fortune, as the puck just keeps bouncing the wrong way for the hard-luck Warriors.

Beyond their visit to Orono, it’s been an uphill battle for Merrimack so far this year.

A suspension, an eligibility issue, and an injury on the eve of Merrimack’s opening game of the season a month ago had the Warriors out of goaltenders, forcing student equipment manager Spencer Marquis to suit up in net for their game against Stonehill. Marquis, who last played for Brunswick High School in 2020, helped the Warriors get to overtime before eventually falling to Stonehill.

Now, on Saturday night, with all goaltenders back, a host of injuries to Merrimack’s skaters posed a headache for Head Coach Scott Borek, who was down to a bare-bones squad without any healthy scratches.

“It’s kind of the perfect storm hitting them at once right now, with all their injuries, their goaltending situation. So you kind of feel for them. I’ve been on the other side, too. They’re down a bunch of bodies, a bunch of really good players for them. That’s just kind of one of those weekends where everything kind of goes against them,” Barr emphasized.

Already close to his wit’s end, Borek almost blew a fuse seconds into the contest when a Maine slash broke a Warrior stick, but no penalty was called by the officials. Maine would go right down the ice with Makar spinning away from a check at the half-boards, feeding Brandon Holt at the blue line. The Black Bear defenseman clipped a shot off iron, where it ricocheted off the end-boards to forward Ross Mitton, who, at a tight angle from the goalline, managed to squeak it past a post-hugging Emerson just seventeen seconds into the contest.

“It was a horrific miss by the official,” Borek said. “Guy breaks your stick and goes in on the breakaway; that’s a little hard to take. It’s been a tough time for our team, but what comes around goes around.”

Ross Mitton, with Nolan Renwick and Taylor Makar, is all smiles after his goal 17 seconds into the game. (Photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics)

The early goal gave the Black Bears momentum. Maine has a knack for coming out to a blitzing start, scoring three times within the opening two minutes of the contest. Firing out of the gates, Maine can jump on opposition teams, putting them in an early hole before they can even react.

“We’re trying to pride ourselves in being a team that can jump right from the first puck drop,” Freel said. “I think it really kind of sets the momentum for the rest of the game.” 

On Friday night, Merrimack struggled mightily to get up ice through a resolute Maine neutral zone defense that suffocated and stymied the usually pacey Warrior attack. Saturday night, however, saw a much improved Merrimack performance, which created their fair share of testing shots on Albin Boija’s net. Borek, who was furious with his team's lack of compete and effort on Friday, was much happier with their play, especially at even strength for Saturday’s game.

Merrimack was better, while Maine wasn’t quite as solid.

Sloppier while taking care of the puck, Maine wasn’t as sharp with it on Saturday evening, occasionally committing unforced errors and turning the puck over in dangerous areas.

“I didn’t think we were as good as we were last night,” Barr said. “We were turning pucks over with the best of them back there at times.”

Boija, who recorded a shutout on Friday with limited action, had a lot more to do on Saturday, coming up with a handful of big saves on odd-man rushes resulting from Black Bear turnovers. While there were large stretches of the contest during which Boija didn’t have much to do, when he was finally called into action, he looked sharp and on top of his game.

“His mental strength is phenomenal. He doesn’t lose focus when he’s not getting a ton of chances. It will be like nothing for a while and then [he] has a breakaway or a two-on-one. It’s been a lot like that this year, and he comes up with the big saves, that’s hard to do,” Barr said about Boija.

While the scoresheet didn’t look it, when both teams were at even strength on Saturday, it was much more of a contest than Friday’s bludgeoning.

“Five-on-five, it was a pretty even game,” Borek said. They called the dogs off at the end, for sure. It was fairly, I don’t want to say even, they carried the play, but we were in a good spot five-on-five.”

But Maine, playing to their hard-nosed game, relentless, with suffocating front-footed physicality, wore Merrimack to a pulp. The Black Bears' bruising style ground down the Warriors on Friday, but the next night, it was even more pronounced. Merrimack, thrown into the pressure cooker for a second consecutive evening, were not able to sustain the intensity with which they started the game, their bodies bruised and their willingness dwindling. Soon, frustration got the better of them and they lost their cool, taking undisciplined penalty after undisciplined penalty, disheartened that their improved play wasn’t yielding better results.

Merrimack’s frustration eventually boiled over when Trevor Griebel took a five-minute major and game misconduct for a facemask penalty on Anthony Calafiore. It was the second time in three games Calafiore had baited the opponent into taking a major, also doing so on Saturday at Northeastern. Also, a facemask call. The penalty put Maine on a seven-minute powerplay, on which they capitalized when Scott released a howitzer of a one-timer at the top of the left faceoff circle for the sixth Black Bear goal.

“I liked our effort five-on-five, and I did not like our lack of discipline, particularly the seven-minute penalty, which was really stupid, really stupid. If a guy takes a hard penalty it doesn’t bother me, but grabbing his facemask, that’s just dumb,” Borek said.

The Alfond waves Trevor Griebel off the ice after the defenseman took a five-minute facemask penalty and a game misconduct. (Photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics)

It was Scott’s second goal of the game, his third of the weekend. Scott’s first goal was a juicy rebound that the senior from San Jose slammed home early in the second period to put Maine up 3-0.

Sophomore forward Charlie Russell also got in on the goalscoring parade when yet another rebound was spilled in the low slot, this time off a heavy Lynden Breen shot from the point. Russell, who played half of last season at Clarkson before heading back to juniors, has gotten better with every game as a Black Bear. With three goals to his name already, Russell finished the weekend with two goals and four assists.

The difference maker was clearly Maine’s special team's domination. The power play scored three goals in six attempts on Saturday for a weekend total of five for eight. A terrific ratio. Meanwhile, the Black Bears’ penalty kill only allowed two shots on the PK all weekend, killing off all five Merrimack man-advantages.

Assistant Coach Jason Fortier runs the power play while Assistant Coach Alfie Michaud reigns over the penalty kill.

Results-wise, it was as close to a perfect weekend the Alfond Faithful could have dreamed of.

Albin Boija recorded back-to-back shutouts over the weekend series, a feat no Black Bear goaltender has accomplished since Jimmy Howard and Frank Doyle teamed up for back-to-back shutouts against Mercyhurst exactly twelve years ago to the date.

Maine scored eleven goals during the two games, five of which came on the power play, with eleven different Black Bears tallying a point during the homestand.

Scott ended up with 7 points, Russell with 6, Freel with 5, Brandon Holt with 4, Makar with 3, and both Breen and Nadeau finished with 2.

But Maine knows there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially when playing at even-strength.

“I thought we played all right, in spurts, we played the game that we want to be playing. But at the same time, there’s a lot of stuff that we can improve on, look back at the video this week and work on it in practice so we can be better the following week,” Freel said.

Ben Barr reflects on his team’s performance after Saturday’s sweep. (Photo courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)

Although they are playing full of confidence at the moment, with three mammoth series against Boston College, Boston University, and New Hampshire looming, the Black Bears are working to stay even-keeled, fully focused on what’s ahead, understanding that their toughest tasks are yet to come.

“Obviously, it’s a good win, and we move on,” Barr said matter of factly.

How good is Maine? The next three weekends are sure to tell us.

On to BC.

The Alfond counts down the final minutes on Maine’s 6-0 victory. (Photo courtesy of Sophia Santamaria — UMaine Athletics)