Next man up.

That’s been the message resonating from the Maine Black Bears’ dressing room following the harrowing lower-body injury to Lynden Breen last Saturday at Rensselaer.

"It's a tough thing for Breen just because he is everything Black Bear Hockey is,” Head Coach Ben Barr said after Wednesday’s practice. “He was playing so well; he had a hat trick that game. You get emotional thinking about a kid like that being out for a while and how much he means to us. But also, that's why depth is such an important part of your team."

In his fifth and final year with Maine, Breen’s 111 career points for the Black Bears can only be overshadowed by his talismanic leadership off the ice.

"It sucks from a non-hockey perspective. He’s such a great guy; he’s a leader on this team, and he was just starting to play some really good hockey, too. We love him, and we hate to see him go down. But I think from a hockey perspective, we need guys to step up, and that includes me, too,” Senior forward Nolan Renwick said.

The second-year co-captain is scheduled to undergo surgery on Friday. Without a confirmed timetable for his return, there is no certainty that Black Bear Nation will see one of their most beloved players return to the ice before the season and his college eligibility ends. Yet Barr and the team remain hopeful.

“I think there’s a chance that if everything goes according to plan, towards the later part of the season, that he could be back,” Barr said on the Black Bear Coaches Show. “If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll have a long run [in the playoffs], and he can come back and join us; that would be the perfect scenario.”

Until then, Maine will have to fill the enormous void left by Breen's absence. Breen was the Black Bears' hottest player in the past few weeks, registering six points in two games before his injury.

This is when Maine’s forward depth will be truly tested. While the injury is, of course, a blow, it does provide a sliver of silver lining. It will force others to step up and grow into new roles, and hopefully, they will flourish in the face of the challenge.

Sometimes, adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.

“He’s a really special player, obviously, and that hurts our club, but we have a lot of guys right now that have a chance to step up and take on a bigger role than they’ve had; that’s an exciting piece for them, and I’m excited to see how that goes,” Frank Djurasevic said.

While Maine will miss Breen’s invaluable presence on the ice, his irreplaceable impact off the ice will still be present. 

“He’ll have a different look at [the game] when he’s up in the stands, and I think that’s honestly going to be a good thing for us. He can see things that maybe we can’t see at ice level,” fellow co-captain David Breazeale said. “He’ll be eager to voice what he sees on the ice and to help us out.” 

New opponent, old friend

This weekend, Maine will look to close out the first half of its season on a high note. The Black Bears hope to extend their current three-game win streak and five-game unbeaten run into the holiday break, hosting the Stonehill Skyhawks for two-matinee contests at Alfond Arena.

“We’re juiced. We want to end the first half strong,” Forward Harrison Scott said.

Stonehill is one of the newest additions to the Division I College Hockey landscape. They are only in their second season since making the leap from D-III but have made substantial strides forward in such a short period of time. After only winning two games last season, the Skyhawks have already won six games this year, with victories over Lake Superior State, St. Lawrence, Army, Lindenwood, and, most notably, two wins against Merrimack.

“They’ve played really well against a lot of really good teams,” Barr said. “I’m sure they’ll be a team that just keeps getting better over the next few years.”

Led by first-year Head Coach David Berard, who coached alongside Barr as an assistant at Providence, the Black Bears can expect the Skyhawks to be an energetic opponent playing with house money and nothing to lose.

“[Berard] is a good friend of mine. I’ve worked with him at Providence. He’s a really detailed guy; he’s a really good coach. He’s a really positive guy, and I think he’s really injected a lot of energy into that program. They play a very structured game, and they don’t beat themselves,” Barr said.

Notable Skyhawks posing a threat to the Black Bears include #24 Anthony Galante (9g-7a-16pts), #20 Henri Schreifels (3g-6a-9pts), and #9 Brady Hunter (2g-5a-8pts).

“They’re going to make us earn everything,” Barr said.

Stonehill enters this weekend ranked as the 56th team in the all-important Pairwise ranking system that determines the NCAA Tournament field, while Maine is ranked 3rd.

The Pairwise uses a mathematical algorithm to compare every team based on common opponents and head-to-head records. It also determines teams’ rankings based on the RPI (Rating Percentage Index), which takes into account the strength of the schedule and the value of winning or losing on the road versus at home.

Because Stonehill is ranked so low and because a home loss is assessed more negatively than a road loss, a single misstep resulting in a loss this weekend could significantly hurt Maine’s Pairwise ranking more than, say, a road loss to a team ranked as high as Boston College would.

To say these two contests are must-win games for the Black Bears is an understatement.

While this weekend will be the first time the Black Bears and the Skyhawks have ever squared off, there will be a familiar face in the net for Stonehill.

Graduate student goaltender Connor Androlowicz played four years for the Black Bears before transferring to Stonehill over the summer.

“He’s a great kid, and he was a great Black Bear. It’s great to see him doing well. Hopefully, we can get a few past him,” Barr said about his former goaltender. “He knows this place well. He knows our team well, so he's going to have an insight into what we're trying to do.”

Although Androlowicz didn’t feature in the net often for the Black Bears, being behind mainstays like Victor Ostman in the pecking order, the St. Louis native was a much-beloved team member and was said to be the DJ during the team’s weightlifting sessions.

“I'm excited to see him. I haven’t seen him in a long time, but I'm definitely firing a couple of chirps here and there. The friendly banter makes it a lot more fun, but I’d say I’ll probably see him the day before the game, and then after that, it’s straight business,” Renwick, who was a roommate of Andrlowicz’s, said. “It's definitely going to be extremely weird to see him in a different jersey and shooting on him in a live game.”

But make no mistake about it—the Black Bears are licking their lips at the opportunity to put a couple past their friend and former teammate. Come puck drop, there will be no love lost.

“I’m looking to light him up like a Christmas tree and get in his grill. I'm not going to be holding back,” Scott said.

Enjoying the starting goaltender role for the Skyhawks, Androlowicz has put together a more than decent season, with a .900 save percentage and a 3.11 goals-against average in his fourteen games started.

A skilled stick handler, Androlowicz’s ability to go behind the net to stop pucks could hamper the Black Bears’ forechecking prospects against a goaltender who knows the Alfond’s boards like the back of his hand.

“He plays the puck really well; he’s like having another defenseman back there. Watching them on film, he’s really good at playing the puck, and he’s not going to be scared about coming out and doing it because he knows our rink. We get some funny bounces in here sometimes. As an opponent, you don’t always see the goalies coming out to stop everything. He knows the funny bounces in this place, so he’s not going to be scared to do that,” Barr said.

Maine will have to be smart about where they dump the puck into in order to establish the grinding, dump-and-chase forecheck game that they rely on. If the Black Bears start to rim pucks around the boards, Androlowicz will more than likely have no problem stopping them behind the net, setting the Skyhawks up for a simple breakout. Maine will need to make sure their dump-ins stay in the corner, far away from behind Androlowicz’s net.

Androlowicz, having faced thousands of shots from many of the current Black Bears over the past four years, will also have the advantage of knowing Maine’s shooters inside and out. 

“I bet he’s got something in the back of his mind with certain guys coming down and what they’re going to do, and probably going to have an idea of where we’re going to shoot, but that’s the fun thing about hockey: trying to find ways to exploit other teams and other guys,” Renwick said.

Building into the break

Besides being two crucial games that are virtually must-wins for Maine’s Pairwise ranking, this weekend is another chance for the Black Bears to continue to build, brick-by-brick, into a team that can win championships.

“I think the last few weekends have been a step in the right direction in becoming the team that we want to be in terms of playing the same way all the time,” Barr said.

Last weekend saw great strides in Maine’s ability to grind teams down  with relentless physical play, ensuring that by the third period they are able to take the game away from their opponents in the final frame. Maine scored eight third-period goals at RPI, not allowing any against them.

“The third period is where we’ve kind of opened up both nights [last weekend], that’s kind of as expected. The first period of the game is always going to be tough; you’re trying to break your opponent's will, you’re trying to, as we like to say, ‘drag them into the cave,’ and you see what happens if you keep being relentless, keep pushing the pressure on them, the game eventually opens up, they’re going to take penalties, they’re going to get frustrated, and then that’s where we really attack and put teams away,” Scott said.

The Black Bears owned the third-period last weekend. If Maine is to continue  building a successful season,  dominating the third period will have to be a regular arrow in their quiver, ingrained in their DNA.

Maine cannot make the mistake of taking this young team for granted. It must prioritize these two tests and keep tightening the line to build sufficient momentum heading into the holiday break.

“You can never underestimate a team,” Scott warned.

Will Maine ensure that Black Bear Nation can spend their holiday break in a jolly mood?

Or will a friend turned foe play the role of Grinch?