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Nestled in the White Mountains, the sleepy town of Hanover, New Hampshire, witnessed a fiery affair between the Maine Black Bears and RIT Tigers Friday night.

On the campus of Dartmouth College, Thompson Arena played host to the first semifinal of Friday's Ledyard Bank Classic doubleheader, which saw Maine emerge victorious 5-2.

While the Black Bears had not competed in nearly three weeks, they did not let the holiday break interfere with their preparation for their season's resumption. Maine's players and staff chose to return to campus earlier than usual this year, getting a solid week of practice in, including a Christmas Eve session, to make sure they continued to improve and build upon their already exceptional season and not come out of the gates for the season's second half sluggish.

Heading into the weekend, Maine sat polled as the 8th best team in the nation while the pairwise mathematically figured them in at #3. Although the Black Bears had won the previous four games before the break, their performances had begun dropping off slightly in their last two games.

Maine started to veer away from their identity of a grinding, high-pressure, physical team that could dictate the game's tempo to their liking and overwhelm the opponents with relentless offensive pressure. The Black Bears knew that if their magical season was to continue into the second half, they would need to regain this style.

Polled at #18, RIT is a difficult test for the Black Bears to immediately be thrown into after such a long absence. A win would be vital for Maine to keep their high standing in the NCAA Tournament, deciding pairwise.

The Black Bears fully knew the importance of these final remaining non-conference games and the threat RIT posed.

Thompson Arena, unassuming from the outside, is a great place to watch a hockey game. The sight lines are excellent throughout, and the white geometric tunnel-like roof is a unique feature that also reverberates lots of noise.

There was plenty of this as hordes of boisterous Black Bear fans filled numerous sections of the rink and gave their team dressed in home whites plenty of support.

More vocal, however, was the impressively large group of RIT fans dubbed 'The Corner Crew' who made a six-hour drive from Rochester to support their Tigers. But the scattering of Lake Superior State fans looking on before their game against Dartmouth takes the cake for longest trip, coming all the way from the Upper Peninsula.

Questions about complacency and sharpness were immediately tossed aside at the opening puck drop.

A rough and tumble start broke out, with neither team looking rusty at all. Kicking off the resumption of their seasons with a bang.

The game opened at breakneck speed. Both teams took no time to exchange holiday greetings, plastering each other into the boards and moving the puck up and down the ice at a blistering pace.

RIT, who uses their speed and skill to excel in this open-ice, back-and-forth environment, was pushed back by an equally quick Black Bear side who used this speed matched with a heavy, in-your-face, pestering game to overwhelm the Tigers.

The Black Bears played some of their best hockey of the season in the opening minutes. Maine's forecheck would quickly pounce on the Tigers, bruising the puck away from them before moving it around the zone with a speed and precision that looked as good as it has all season.

The high-pressing forecheck was not just the job of Maine's forwards but also the defensemen. Barr could be seen in the opening minutes waving the Black Bear blueliners forward when Maine put pucks in deep, urging them to pinch aggressively from the points, squeezing the Tigers by reducing any time and space for RIT to use to break.

The forecheck was a full-team effort. Top to bottom.

The Maine game plan: use this forecheck to overwhelm RIT, not letting the Tigers out of their zone, grinding them down with an overload of constantly buzzing pressure, tiring RIT's legs, and capitalizing on the mistakes this can cause.

Every Black Bear in these opening minutes had an impact on the game. Either making a defensive play, big hit, or play with the puck, Maine was rolling through all four lines in the opening minutes with short shifts, keeping their legs fresh and the relentless pressure on RIT.

Even Maine's non-dressed players in the stands were called into action early on. Healthy-scratch Freshman forward Anthony Calafiore made a slick 'glove save' on a puck that flew into the crowd.

There was no rust to be found on any of these Black Bears.

Maine was rewarded for their full-throttle start just three minutes into the game. Donovan Houle scrapped the puck from RIT and drove around the net with speed. He found Brandon Chabrier at the point, who just as quickly reversed the play and drove to the net himself, scrambling the RIT defense and finding Thomas Freel open in the slot. Freel couldn't bury the puck home but recovered and pounced on the rebound, keeping the play moving and in Maine's possession.

Coming from behind the net, the puck found its way to Chabrier once again, this time at the other point. The lightning-fast puck movement had RIT entirely out of position, allowing Chabrier acres of space to fire the puck on goal from the point with a rocket of a wrist shot. The puck had eyes for the back of the net, settling in the top corner behind the screened RIT netminder to put the Black Bears up deservingly.

It was the quintessential Ben Barr Black Bear goal.

Overwhelming pressure, swarming speed, constant movement on the cycle from all players with and without the puck, and a driving directness from the puck-handlers created chaos in front of RIT's net.

It was the perfect start.

Houle, who has had somewhat of a slow start to his senior season, looked to have returned to his best Friday night in a standout performance for the aptly nicknamed Donny Hockey. The Québécois used his dynamic and explosive speed, alongside his big frame, to become a vital cog in the Maine forecheck machine. While with the puck, the power forward utilized his direct, driving play and soft hands to provide a constant offensive threat throughout Friday's contest. Paired alongside the ever-energetic motors of Thomas Freel and Harrison Scott, the line looked as promising as ever.

With Maine firmly in the driver's seat, holding all the momentum early on, the Black Bears' next step was to maintain this pressure by grinding down and overwhelming the opposition in order to begin dictating the play on their terms.

But credit to the Tigers, they didn't back down. Under tremendous forechecking pressure, they began to utilize their speed and skill on the breakout to move through the Maine press and quickly and crisply get the puck up the ice, slowly wearing down Maine's momentum as the first period continued.

While the game felt incredibly open, with both sides continuing to play at lightning speed, neither team could maintain any prolonged attacking threat as both teams' defenses closed down any space and time so quickly in the back-and-forth affair.

Although the first period started perfectly for the Black Bears, the second certainly did not.

Early on, a bad pass from a Maine defenseman at his own blueline allowed the dangerous Carter Wilkie to walk in uncontested and bury a breakaway shot past the left-to-dry Ostman, tying the game at one.

But the mistake that led to the Tigers' goal would be RIT's only shot on the Maine net for a good chunk of the second period. The Black Bears practically camped out in the RIT zone for much of the remaining frame. The Maine forecheck found its form once again, with RIT struggling to escape the constant bombardment of Black Bear pressure. Being the period with the long line change, the Tigers tired under relentless Maine pressure as cracks in their defensive structure began to show.

During the midweek Coaches Show, Assistant Coach Jason Fortier, when describing what the Black Bears' identity was, compared how the overload of Maine's relentless attack affected the opponents as being under a pressure cooker. That is the best way to describe how the second period unfolded.

RIT was in the pressure cooker, while Maine made mistakes and was ruthless in their execution.

Bradly Nadeau didn't allow the Tigers to get the puck out of the zone and allow fresh RIT legs onto the ice. The younger of the Nadeau brothers made a great hustle play to negate an RIT breakout and keep Maine's relentless attack going. Driving past the gassed Tigers, the New Brunswick line passed their way towards the RIT net, where Bradly was rewarded for his defensive play with a shot in the slot, putting Maine back in the lead.

A few minutes later, this lead would be doubled. As a Maine power play expired, Sully Scholle moved the puck up-ice to Donovan Houle, who gained the zone, moving laterally across the high slot. This changed the attacking angle and allowed Harrison Scott time to jump in on the rush and drive to the net. The pass from Houle deflected off a Tiger stick, but Scott kept with it, controlling the bouncing puck in front of the RIT net, and while spinning around, with his back to the net, he made an incredible no-look backhand shot that crept into the RIT goal.

3-1 Bears and a goal that was certainly going on Scott's highlight reel.

With an assist on the play, forward Sully Scholle put his name on the scoresheet in what was an excellent game from the Minnesota native. All night, Scholle showcased his quick mitts, allowing him to create space where there seemingly was none, permitting the freshman the opportunity to make a play, catching the RIT defense by surprise, and creating grade-a scoring chances for his team.

With everything seemingly going the Black Bears' way, Maine kept their foot firmly on the gas. Merely twenty seconds after Scott's goal, an RIT misplay and strong play at the half-boards from Cole Hanson sprung Félix Trudeau in front of the net in the blink of an eye, he tucked in a tight-angle shot from down-low.

But the Black Bears, with all the momentum in the world, frustratingly allowed RIT back in the game once again in a second period that quickly turned into a penalty-fest. Enjoying the open ice of a 5-on-3 that became a 5-on-4, the Tigers cut the deficit down to 4-2.

Nonetheless not long after RIT re-conjured the slightest bit of momentum, they shot themselves in the foot with undisciplined, boneheaded play.

What was already a chippy game completely boiled over in a split second. An innocent enough-looking tangle after a whistle between Maine's Freel and RIT's Xavier Lapointe exploded in a skirmish as the Tiger's defenseman lost his cool and jumped Freel, putting Maine's Scotsman in a headlock before almost decapitating the Black Bear forward with a tug of the facemask. The referees were having none of it, as they sent Lapointe to the dressing room early with a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct.

All season long, Maine has been so disciplined in any after-the-whistle pleasantries, never retaliating and allowing their adversary to be the one to cross the line and take the penalty.

The Tigers, clearly frustrated by Maine's constant bombardment in the second period, retaliated and completely killed any of their own momentum. They were forced to withstand even more Maine pressure as the rest of the second frame was spent desperately keeping the Black Bears' dangerous power play at bay.

While Maine themselves were frustrated at being unable to execute during the five minutes to put themselves again up by three goals, the unsuccessful extended advantage still sent Maine into the second intermission entirely in the driver's seat, and RIT without a sniff of the net.

The Black Bears, who have struggled at times to close out games cleanly this year, would have the chance to prove themselves in their game management skills during the third period.

And did they ever show improvement.

Maine completely shut down RIT during the final frame. Only allowing the Tigers two shots on Maine's net in what became Maine's best defensive period of the season.

Two shots.

The Black Bears excelled at clogging the neutral zone and not giving RIT the chance to cleanly and routinely enter Maine's zone. The rare times the Tigers did cross into Black Bear territory, Maine kept RIT's cycle at stick's length at the perimeter, never really letting RIT produce anything more than a couple pot shots that were either blocked by Black Bear bodies or which Ostman could easily react to.

It was a defensive masterclass from the Black Bears. Barr, on the bench throughout the period's final minutes, repeatedly urged his bench to bang on the boards and energize their teammates on the ice. He made sure not to let his team's standards drop or focus be lost as the final minutes ticked away rather uneventfully.

The Black Bears put the final nail in RIT's coffin with an empty net goal from who else? Bradly Nadeau sealed the Maine victory and their place in the Ledyard Bank Classic championship game Saturday night.

It was a victory that saw Maine excel on both sides of the puck.

After struggling to play to their identity in the final games before the break, it was a terrific sign that Maine looked to be back at their overpowering best Friday night.

And let's remember, against a really good RIT side, too.

It was a mature performance that saw the Black Bears, for the most part, dictate the pace of play and control the game to their desired tempo very well.

In the second game of the doubleheader, the hosts Dartmouth defeated Lake Superior State, meaning the Black Bears will face off with the Big Green for the Ledyard Bank Classic trophy on Saturday night.

One win away from getting their hands on silverware.

While it certainly isn't a 'championship' that the Black Bears dream of winning at the beginning of the season, to become a championship side and win the significant silverware come springtime, it certainly isn't a bad habit to get into now.

Lifting trophies can become addicting; that is just the habit Maine wants to get used to.

Time to end 2023 on the highest of high notes.