And exhale.

The Maine Black Bears brought their brooms with them as they swept the Merrimack Warriors right out of their own building, sealing the weekend sweep with a nervy 5-4 victory Saturday evening at Lawler Rink in North Andover, Massachusetts.

The night after winning their first opening conference game since 2017, Ben Barr and his team knew they would face a much better Merrimack team in game two. The Warriors would be hungry for revenge. Maine knew that their own game would also have to be raised in order to keep up with Merrimack, a team that can be as dangerous as any in Hockey East.

Twenty percent.

According to Barr, that’s how much improved Maine needed to play Saturday night if they were going to give themselves a chance at back-to-back road wins. In his pregame Keys to the Game segment, the Maine head coach emphasized the importance of finishing hits, staying above the puck to support the play, and being twenty percent better at executing passes and scoring opportunities. Barr wanted the game plan to stay the same from Friday’s impressive win, but improving on these qualities and simply wanting it more than their opponents would be vital for Maine to repeat victorious.

The second game after winning is almost always more difficult than the first, as the home team is desperate not to go pointless over the weekend in front of their fans.

Beating a team is one thing. Beating a team on consecutive nights is a whole other test.

Barr, looking to keep his team’s energy up, brought in two fresh legs that did not appear Friday in forwards Félix Trudeau and Nicholas Niemo, showcasing the depth of his squad. Trudeau and Niemo slotted into the fourth line on either side of center Sully Scholle, which meant Parker Lindauer and Reid Pabich were scratched from the lineup.

From the opening puck drop, Maine picked up right where they left off Friday night, utilizing a persistent forecheck and swarming all over the Warriors. Maine immediately gained the puck in Merrimack’s defensive zone and started to cycle the puck. Thomas Freel, Harrison Scott, and Donovan Houle were able to battle the puck away from the Warriors before supporting each other and finding Brandon Chabrier, who sniped home a wrist shot from the point through Merrimack bodies, giving the Black Bears a 1-0 less than a minute into the game, sending Lawler Rink, which was packed with Maine fans, into early jubilee.

Brandon Chabrier’s goal, his second of the season, was the highlight of a superb outing from the young defensemen, continuing his streak of excellent performances so far this year, surprising some of even the most optimistic of Black Bear fans. All night long, Chabrier brimmed with confidence; his excellent edge work, lateral skating ability, and composure on the puck allowed him to squirm through the Merrimack forecheck, releasing the pressure on his team and moving the puck safely up the ice.

Merrimack, however, did not back down from this early adversity, taking the game right back to the Black Bears and creating some good goal opportunities of their own early into the game. Merrimack seemed noticeably faster tonight, significantly so when cutting through neutral ice and into their offensive zone, creating a high-pace, high-intensity start.

But Maine was indeed twenty percent better. Their forecheck was buzzing again, allowing the Black Bears to force turnovers in dangerous areas of the ice. Their passing and cycling while in the O-zone in the first frame was as good as I had seen this season. All the Black Bears on the ice, especially the puck handler, created a constant flow and cycle of movement around the net, moving the Warrior defenders out of position and allowing Maine to generate plenty of good looks on the net.

The Black Bears doubled their lead twelve minutes into the first. Lynden Breen gained the zone where, at the half boards, he and Bradly Nadeau played a quick sequence of instinctual passes. This clever play from the duo set up Bradly to create just a moment of space in the slot, where his dangerous shot from the left-sided faceoff circle beat the Merrimack goaltender blocker side. It looked as if Merrimack gave the younger of the Nadeau brothers way too much time and space with the puck, but in reality, Bradly Nadeau is just so silky smooth with the puck on his stick that he can create his own space out of nothing and conjure up a high-quality shot even when being defended so tightly, often by multiple defenders.

The Merrimack band tried to get their team going with chants of “Let’s go, Mack, let’s go, Mack!” But this backfired as it was the Black Bear faithful who were the vocal majority Saturday night, hijacking the chant, turning it into “Let’s go, Maine, let’s go, Maine!” Further pushing their beloved on Bears for more.

Bradly’s scoring touch continued just a minute into the second period. Lynden Breen kept Maine in possession on the cycle, finding Nadeau with a lethal pass from the corner, who one-timed the pass, once again, over the netminder’s blocker, giving himself his second goal of the contest and a 3-0 lead for the deservingly dominant Black Bears.

But Merrimack wouldn’t roll over, fighting against Maine’s momentum advantage to bury a rebound goal that the Black Bear defenders could not clear, giving the home team life in their legs.

Instead of playing conservatively with the lead and protecting what they already had, the Black Bears kept going for more, unwilling to take their foot off the gas. Midway through the second, Nolan Renwick, resolute on the puck, took a hit to make a play below Merrimack’s goal line, poking it to Cole Hanson, who made a fabulous no-look dish from behind the net, where a lingering Ben Poisson snapped a tight angle shot over the goaltender’s pads to, once again, put Maine up by three goals.

Cole Hanson, who started the season as the fourth-line center, was moved to the right wing next to Poisson and Renwick for the weekend. This tweak really allowed Hanson to showcase his strengths. Traditionally undersized for a center, moving Hanson to the wing gave the North Dakota native license to utilize his speed through the neutral zone more, as well as demonstrate his strong forechecking.

Up 4-1 late in the second, Maine still refused to let up on their pressure. The New Brunswick line worked hard to keep an extended zone time for the Black Bears alive, wearing down and tiring out the Warrior defense. Maine, who continuously maintained possession of the puck during this cycle, was able to get the fresh legs of fourth liner Sully Scholle onto the ice, who made a beeline from the bench to an open area near the slot.

The puck naturally found itself on the stick of the freshman forward, who immediately opened up his body to rifle the puck top-shelf. It gave the Minnesota native his first goal for the Black Bears, a highlight ending to Maine’s best period of the season with a terrific offensive showing that had Maine flowing with confidence going into the second intermission, holding a dominant 5-1 lead.

Merrimack’s head coach, Scott Borek, changed his goaltender to start the third period. The replacement of Hugo Ollas for Zachary Borgiel hoped to spark the struggling Warriors. Everyone in Lawler Rink knew Merrimack would come out in the third fast and hard, refusing to go down without a fight. The question was how would Maine weather the storm.

The Black Bears’ reaction was to come out in the third and almost immediately score another goal as Nicholas Niemo was unlucky to ring a shot off the post. Merrimack, now with nothing to lose, started to play their best hockey of the weekend. They broke through Maine’s first line of defense and into the attacking zone more regularly, something they had struggled with all weekend. These cleaner entries allowed Merrimack’s talented forwards, Ben Brar and Alex Jefferies, plenty of scoring opportunities on the net. The constant pressure for most of the third period forced the Black Bears on their heels.

An All-American last season, Alex Jefferies could not be contained in the third period, scoring early in the final frame to cut Maine’s lead to 5-2. The three-goal cushion, known as the worst lead in the hockey world, was put under further threat as a few minutes later, Maine was forced to the penalty kill, a massive test for the PK unit as Merrimack held all the momentum.

But Maine’s PK not only shut down the Warrior powerplay. It actually provided Maine with their best scoring chances of the third. Donovan Houle stole the puck by the center ice boards, where he blindly passed to Lynden Breen, catching the Merrimack power play out of position, leading to a breakaway for the king of short-handed goals in college hockey. Breen, who had scored on a breakaway the night before against Ollas, also scored two short-handed goals against the same goalie last season. Ollas, who must see Breen racing towards him in his nightmares, was spared as Lynden narrowly missed the net with the golden opportunity.

The Warrior’s ability to hang in the game created the beginning of real nerves and worry for the large contingent of Black Bear fans in attendance. Halfway through the third, Michael Citara roofed a perfect backhand from a tight angle past Ostman.

5-3.

With four minutes left, Merrimack once again turned to their star player, as an offensive faceoff win with their goaltender pulled set up Alex Jefferies to scorch a one-timer off the crossbar and into the net.

5-4.

By now, it felt like Maine was skating uphill. The low roof thundered as the Merrimack fans, led by their pep band, encouraged their team forward. The unison of noise and pace of play from the Warriors gave Merrimack all the momentum in the world, severely putting Maine under the cosh in a frantic final few minutes of regulation.

It was sweaty palms and tight cheeks for the Black Bears.

With the Merrimack net empty, Maine could not put the final nail in the Warrior’s coffin as the Black Bears twice missed the empty net in the last minutes of the contest.

A flurry of Merrimack shots was dealt by Ostman as the final seconds wound down. The veteran goaltender’s experience was shown as he decided to throw the puck into the corner, allowing the last five seconds to trickle away as time ran out on the Warrior’s comeback. That was a much better choice than covering up and stopping the play, which would have allowed Merrimack to set up a play off of the faceoff.

Vast roars sounded throughout the rink as Maine fans were finally able to sigh relief, knowing their team had sealed the win and weekend sweep.

This weekend was a monumental step forward for the program, with bundles of positives to take away. While Maine clearly didn’t play their best in the third period Saturday night, I don’t think it was close to solely being down to a few poor moments from Maine. It shouldn’t be lost on Black Bear fans that Merrimack is a powerful team, and they were always going to create danger; they did play in the Hockey East Championship Game last season and appeared as one of the nation’s top sixteen teams in the National Tournament, after all.

Yet, however talented they are, the Warriors were still beaten fair and square twice at home by our Black Bears. And that is massive. Sweeping on the road should never be taken for granted; even if Merrimack isn’t a traditional college hockey powerhouse, they are a top team in the league and the country this season.

Ben Barr and his Black Bears are elevating this program to highs that haven’t been seen in decades. Maine teams of past seasons would have completely fallen apart and lost this game.

But not this Maine team. Not with Ben Barr at the helm.

Another tricky test, another test passed — more knowledge and experience acquired. The sky’s the limit for this young team.

They are teaching Mainers to believe in UMaine hockey again. We are marching back to where we all think we belong, at the top of the college hockey echelon.

On to #1 BC.