Ledyard Bank Classic Preview

Returning from break, Maine travels to Hanover for a tournament with RIT, Dartmouth, and Lake State.

♫ "It's beginning to look a lot like the nineties.

Everywhere in Maine." ♫

The pre-holiday storm that ravaged the Pine Tree State earlier this month has many Mainers drawing comparisons to the devastating Ice Storm of '98.

But warmer parallels to the decade are being drawn as well. That is a return to the hockey program's glory days, which may be looming on the horizon as a much more welcome storm.

The first half of Maine's season has been a start to remember. A 10-3-1 record coming out of the Christmas break has put the Black Bears back in the national spotlight.

It's been the Black Bears' best start to a season since 2006/07. The year that saw Maine's last Frozen Four appearance. Currently polled at #8 in the country and statistically ranked #3 in the all-important pairwise ranking, the Black Bears have shocked even the most optimistic of Mainiaks with what is looking like a possible return to the top echelon of college hockey for the blue-blood program.

Their fast-paced, hard-nosed, blood-and-thunder play is enthralling to watch and has the entire state on the edge of its collective seat to see what comes next.

And what comes next determines how this team will be remembered.

It's not how you start but how you finish.

Keep the ship steady on the wave of momentum.

While Black Bear Nation spent the holidays in hibernation, Ben Barr's team was hard at work, spending their Christmas on the ice, unwilling to let the holiday interfere with their collective ambition of continued improvement. They even practiced through the state-wide power outages, which not even Alfond was safe from, further showcasing the collective desire of the group to not let the break disrupt their hot-start and to hit the second-half running.

Just like the Alfond Faithful, they can sense something special could be brewing, and they won't let any hurdle be used as an excuse from reaching their goals.

That says a lot about the characters of this team.

While the blistering start to the season has seen the Black Bears shoot up the standings and national rankings, the on-ice play has dropped in Maine's final pre-break games against Union and Bentley, although the winning results stayed the same.

Although the Bears emerged victorious, their identity, which proved successful against the likes of BC and Quinnipiac, faded. Their identity of wearing down the opponents with a mix of speed and strength, overwhelming and eventually breaking them with relentless pressure, was lacking and will need to be remedied for the Black Bears to stay successful.

While it is a massive positive that Maine can grind out wins even while not playing near their best, Maine knows that they cannot rely on this trend continuing to produce victories. Especially as the schedule soon returns to conference play, where flat performances will surely be punished.

The Nadeau brothers have rightly stolen the headlines. Their telepathic play and a workhorse in Lynden Breen have quickly made the New Brunswick line one of the most feared in college hockey.

But Maine, especially in their most recent games, have perhaps relied upon this trio to get the Black Bears on the scoreboard too much. While other Black Bear forwards have made vital contributions on the stat sheet, most notably Thomas Freel and Harrison Scott, many Black Bears seem yet to consistently find their previous form.

Veterans Ben Poisson, Donovan Houle, and Nolan Renwick first come to mind because of their importance to the team. Offensively, all three were standouts last season but have yet to reach their maximum ability this year. Perhaps this is due to being banged up, like in Renwick's case, who has been battling a lower-body injury throughout the year. Or maybe, like with Poisson and Houle, they have yet to fully find the right line combination to gell with. These are some of Maine's most talented players, and while all have played well so far this season, they can still improve leaps and bounds and make this team even more dangerous and deep on the attack. Quite the scary proposition for the rest of Hockey East.

Another nitpicky aspect of room for improvement is the team's inability to close out games cleanly. While it has yet to fully come back to bite the Bears, Maine has a couple times failed to slam the door shut on games they were leading late on. Twice away at Merrimack, late goals caused a comfortable Black Bear lead to turn into nail-biting finishes. And the only blemish of the season on Alfond ice was a late BC goal that turned a Maine sweep into a game-two tie. These minor concerns could haunt Maine come playoff time if not remedied.

Assistant Coach Jason Fortier has called on a need for more maturity from the team as a way towards improvement. When speaking with John Shields on the Black Bear Coaches Show, Fortier explained that naturally, during a game, the team experiences dips and peaks in emotion, like a rollercoaster. Keeping emotions and attitude consistent and even-keeled no matter what is happening on the ice is an essential next step for the team's mentality to avoid any lulls in their game.

Ledyard Bank Classic Preview

Looking forward, the Black Bears will end the calendar year with their first shot at silverware this season. While it isn't a trophy that Black Bear Nation dreams about at night, the Ledyard Bank Classic will be a perfect opportunity for Maine to get in the habit of winning shiny things.

A habit we hope will become addicting.

Hosted by Dartmouth, the Black Bears will take on the dangerous RIT Tigers in the tournament's first semi-final on Friday, the first-ever meeting between the two programs. While often overlooked because of the conference they play in, RIT is the cream of the Atlantic Hockey Conference's crop and the real deal. The Tigers boast an impressive 11-5-0 record, including big wins over Notre Dame and New Hampshire, deservingly placing them at #17 in pairwise and #18 in the polls.

The Black Bears will have their hands full Friday night and have no time to slowly get back into the swing of things. The Tigers are a speedy and skillful team that will make plays and cause plenty of danger in front of Maine's net, especially on their threatening power play. Maine will have to keep a particular eye on forwards #21 Carter Wilkie and #26 Cody Laskosky, the former of which is predicted to be the Atlantic Conference's Player of the Year. Meanwhile guarding the Tiger net is #30 Tommy Scarforne, one of the most underrated goaltenders in the nation, who will require the Black Bear shooters to be in top form if they are to light the lamp behind him.

On Wednesday night's Coaches Show, Fortier explained that he expects a back-and-forth game from the evenly matched high-flying offenses. But if the Black Bears are to come out on top, they need to establish their identity on the game, dictating the tempo and pace to their liking through their heavy, grinding style of play. For Maine to have the better of the Tigers Friday night, the Black Bears must keep constant pressure on the RIT net, not giving them a second to breathe and overwhelm them through relentless offensive bombardment.

As Fortier said, "Put them in the pressure cooker."

It's a massive test for the Black Bears to be thrown back into after a couple weekends off. To make the game and weekend even more critical, these final remaining non-conference games (this weekend and next against Colgate) have major ramifications on Maine's pairwise ranking. Come through successfully, and the Black Bears will be in the driver's seat for their pursuit of an at-large bid to the National Tournament, as the rest of the Black Bears' schedule is mainly against fellow Hockey East teams who are also ranked similarly to Maine and therefore any losses will statistically hurt the Black Bears chances of a top-sixteen finish significantly less. But losing these non-conference games to much lower-ranked opposition could see the Black Bears' pairwise ranking drop quickly and put Maine on the outside looking in before they can even blink.

To make matters more difficult for Maine, the Bears will be without important players, Nolan Renwick and Grayson Arnott, who miss out due to injury.

Win or lose, Maine will either play Dartmouth or Lake Superior State in the championship or consolation game on Saturday. Whichever side they play, Maine will be the likely favorites as the Big Green of Dartmouth sits at #30 in the pairwise, while the Lakers of Lake State are down at #43. Either the host team or a rematch of the 1993 National Championship Game.

Let's hope the Black Bears can quickly shake off the rust and continue this magical start in style.

Let's see if this team can gear up to another level and improve upon their impressive first half.

Three weeks without Black Bear hockey is three weeks too many.

Let's finish 2023 strong, and then the real fun begins.