The Black Bears huddle around Albin Boija’s net before their game at BC. (Photo courtesy of Meg Kelly.)

Since the Maine Black Bears schedule was released in late June, the first weekend of 2025 has been circled in bright red ink on countless calendars across the state.

Traveling east to ring in the New Year with the Black Bears is one of the country's all-time classic, blue-chip, most-storied college hockey programs you can name.

With an all-time record ten National Championships to their name and currently holding college hockey’s most coveted prize, there aren’t too many teams better and more prestigious than the #6 Denver Pioneers.

In terms of both long-term and recent success — three NCAA Championships and five Frozen Four appearances in the last ten seasons — Denver is everything Head Coach Ben Barr and his’ Black Bears are striving to become.

For Maine, which is looking to take the next step in becoming a championship-caliber team themselves, there are few better opportunities to test themselves than the challenge they will face this weekend.

“When you play a caliber team that has the culture that they have, and the players that they have, and the coaches that they have, you have to be on your game, and we want to be that. That’s what we are trying to be, so this is why you play the game,” Barr said after practice on Tuesday. “What a great opportunity to try and be able to do that at home against the defending National Champ.”

Pios with a point to prove

Although Denver comes into this weekend as the current title-holders, with a 14-4-0 record, the 5th best ranking in the Pairwise, and sitting at #6 in USCHO’s poll, the Pioneers, in fact, have stumbled and tumbled their way into the New Year.

After winning all of their first twelve games this season, including notable sweeps over Northeastern, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, the Pioneers have had a choppy run of late, with a record of just 2-4 since their perfect start.

This doesn’t include a humiliating exhibition tie and shootout loss last weekend at home to an ACHA club team from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas that sparked shockwaves across the college hockey world.

Maine isn’t reading too much into Denver’s headline-making result. If anything, after such a chastening, the Black Bears are expecting the Pioneers to be coming into Orono with their pride hurt, pissed off, and with a point to prove.

“I didn’t get to catch that game, but you see it in the news and stuff. Obviously, they are an unbelievable hockey team. They’re going to be fired up coming in here after that weekend, and we don’t really look into [the loss to UNLV] too much; we’re just excited to be playing against a national champion contending team,” co-Captain David Breazeale said.

It is important to note that Denver was without its Head Coach, David Carle, and star defenseman, Zeev Buium. They are both in Ottawa representing Team USA at the World Juniors tournament. The United States beat Switzerland in a knockout game Thursday afternoon. It will, therefore, play a semifinal game on Saturday north of the border, meaning Denver will still be without Carle and Buium for this weekend.

“[Denver] is going to be a motivated team, but their game didn’t count. Our loss counted,” Barr said.

Bouncing back from Bentley

Denver isn’t the only team taking to the ice this weekend looking to right its ship. The Black Bears will also be hungry for a bounce-back after a disappointing loss to Bentley on their return from holiday break.

“It was a bummer of a weekend, going down to Portland, having a sold-out crowd, and losing one down there in a home environment for us,” Breazeale said.

Maine’s 4-1 loss in Portland was a good reminder that the Black Bears still have a lot of growing to do if they are to enter the championship-caliber conversation.

While it was only Maine’s third loss of the season, from Barr’s perspective, his team’s performance was not much different than it had been all season, even when it had rattled off wins left, right, and center. Bentley simply capitalized on Maine’s mistakes at a greater rate than previous opponents had been able to. 

“I don’t think our performance was much different than it had been at any time in the first half, but it wasn’t good enough,” Barr said. “We were just sloppy at inopportune moments, and every time we were sloppy, it went in the net. And that’s the game of hockey. It hadn’t happened to us a lot in the first half, if at all really, and we let that happen to us by having some mental breakdowns and by not making the plays that were there to be made at times.”

As seasons progress, games take on more meaning, teams’ desperation levels spike, and the margin for error becomes razor-thin. Forwards tend to execute on mistakes more ruthlessly, and defenses become more suffocating. Bentley showed that the Black Bears still need to raise their game, especially their execution because the opposition’s sharpness during the less-forgiving second half is sure to ratchet up.

“It was just kind of one of those games where we allowed some funny bounces or whatnot to hurt us. One bad line change, they scored their third goal, one bad breakout, they scored their first goal, one bad faceoff on the penalty kill and that’s the game. It’s a thin margin of error that we have, and we have to be better,” Barr explained.

Barr believes that Maine needs much greater consistency and impactfulness from its top players, as not enough of them have been able to step up when the team has needed them the most week in and week out.

“We need more from certain individuals…. It’s not something that’s process-orientated, but we have to have some of our veteran guys who have been here play better. And that doesn’t mean that they have to win the game for us, but when there’s a play to be made, and you have a chance to make a play and make an impact on the game, you’ve got to make it. That’s what championship teams do. And that’s for everyone that’s in the lineup. Whether you are a big-time scorer or a power play guy or not, at this level, if you have a chance to make a play, you have to make a play. That’s our focus going forward,” Barr said.

Just about all of Maine’s players have had flashes and even prolonged stretches of playing in top form, but aside from Thomas Freel, Harrison Scott, Brandon Holt, and Albin Boija who have just about had an A-game every night, consistently top-notch, impactful performances from the likes of David Breazeale, Taylor Makar, Ross Mitton, Brandon Chabrier, Frank Djurasevic, Sully Scholle, Nolan Renwick, and Josh Nadeau to name a few are still lacking and very much needed for Maine to reach their full potential.

Maine’s makeup as a team doesn’t allow it to rely solely on a small few to win the game single-handedly. The Black Bears need more impact from more players willing to grab the game by the scruff of the neck at a more consistent rate.

“We’re searching for those last three or four spots of players that want to be the guy. [That] want to be the guy to make that play when we need to make the play, when the chance is there. That’s what we’re searching for,” Barr said.

Diving into Denver

Although the Pioneers will be without their head coach and first-round draft pick, defenseman Zeev Buium, Denver still has thirteen other NHL-drafted players.

A roster overflowing with elite goalscoring talent, Denver’s 4.0 goals-per-game average is tied for the best in the country, while their 29% power play conversion rate is top in the nation.

The Pioneers have three of the top-ten goal-scoring forwards in the entire country at their disposal with #7 Aidan Thompson (11g-13a-24pts), #15 Carter King (11g-8a-19pts), and #12 Sam Harris (11g-6a-17pts). Meanwhile, #4 Jack Devine (2g-25a-27pts) leads the nation in assists by a wide margin.

“They’re very skilled, they are very fast. I don’t know what they don’t do well,” Barr said.

Denver’s offense can score with frightening ease, while their defense holds opposition teams to an average of 2.0 goals-per-game – tied for the 7th-best GA/G in the country and slightly behind Maine’s 1.8 GA/G. The Pioneers' stellar 90.2% penalty-kill completion is also one of the best in college hockey. Maine’s PP, which is scoring at 23.7% of the time, will be looking to bounce back after sputtering last weekend to Bentley.

In net for the Pios is senior #35 Matt Davis. While Davis’ 2.1 GAA and .918 Save% is solid without setting this season alight, the netminder from Calgary has a knack for being practically unscored on in big games. Davis’ three goals allowed during Denver’s four-game run in the NCAA Tournament last season, including a shutout in the National Championship Game against BC, practically single-handedly dragged the Pioneers to the championship.

Boija and the Black Bears will need to have one of their best games of the season. Likewise, for Maine to have any offensive success against a resolute Denver defense, their presence in front of the net will have to be massively improved from what it was against Bentley. Although Maine threw 45 shots on goal in Portland and almost 100 shots overall, most of them were kept to the perimeter as Maine’s usually excellent net-front drive was sorely lacking.

Maine will need to execute a quick return to their identity as a team that prides itself on excelling in the greasy areas in front of the net after establishing itself in the offensive zone through their heavy, muck-and-grind forecheck.

“I think it’s just simplifying our game, getting pucks to the net, getting bodies to the net. When you have to chip a puck in and go forecheck, you do that because that’s our bread and butter at the end of the day. When we’re playing fast, when we’re putting pucks in behind teams, we’re holding on to them in the corners, that’s where our offense usually comes from, and obviously, that wasn’t there for us for that whole game, there were moments, but we’ve got to get back to that, and back to our identity coming in Friday night,” Breazeale explained.

In the Spotlight

As if this weekend’s marquee matchup didn’t need any more luster, Friday night’s contest will be the first nationally televised game broadcast from the Alfond in recent memory, with the game being shown on ESPN-U. While Barr says the more-than-usual number of eyes watching his team won’t change any of the on-ice proceedings, the team is still excited that the unparalleled Alfond atmosphere will be on display for the entire country to enjoy. 

“It is obviously a cool thing. We have a hard time getting NESN up here at times, let alone ESPN or whoever else. It’s cool; it’s special when that happens. When we’re playing the game, it just feels like another game, obviously, whatever network it might be on, it doesn’t necessarily play a role in how we’re feeling about it. But I think it’s a credit to the [Orono] community that ESPN wants to come here and put that game on because it’s a long way for them to come, and they’re not going to do it if there’s not something special about the Alfond,” Barr said.

Although the Black Bears are being thrust into the limelight of a nationally televised game, their approach is the same as it always is, focusing on themselves and their own process rather than the menacing name on their opponent’s sweaters.

“Obviously, playing Denver gets a certain amount of attention that maybe not every series gets, but for us, this is no different than playing Bentley the week before or playing whoever we play after Denver. It’s about how good can we be as a team?” Barr challenged.

While the Black Bears' approach to this weekend series may be the same, they are not overlooking the unique challenge and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of facing a blue-chip powerhouse from out West, the defending National Champions no less, and one of the most complete teams in college hockey.

“It’s pretty cool; you dream about these moments when you are thinking about college hockey. These are the exciting moments and the games that you want to be a part of, and being here at the University of Maine, it’s a blessing that we get to be in these kinds of games. We are really fired up for it,” Breazeale said.

#6 vs #7.

West vs East.

Title-holder vs up-and-coming challenger.

Two storied college hockey teams are battling it out on a frozen sheet in Orono. This is what college hockey is all about.

This is what we live for.

Will it be the bounce-back Black Bears or the Pioneers out with a point to prove?

Great moments are born from great opportunity.