The Journey North is never a straight shot to the top.

To climb the mountain and achieve the ultimate goal, there are peaks and valleys to traverse, ups and downs, highs and lows, triumphs, tribulations, and plenty of heartbreak along the way.

That’s what makes it a journey. You have to go through the heartbreaking failures to one day reach the peak of victory. It’s the only way.

The 2024/2025 Maine Black Bears’ journey ended in bitter disappointment on Friday night in the Regional semifinal of the NCAA Tournament in Allentown, Pennsylvania, when, for the second consecutive season, Maine bowed out of the National Tournament at the first hurdle, falling to the Penn State Nittany Lions by the score of 5-1.

While giving your absolute everything doesn’t guarantee anything, it’s your only chance to ever get something.

The Black Bears gave it their all.

Every ounce of energy, every bit of heart and soul they could muster. Every bit of willpower they could summon from deep within themselves.

But it wasn’t enough. Not this game. Not this year.

Nightmare in Hockey Valley

Tucked away in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Allentown, Pennsylvania, is filled with decommissioned brick-covered mills from its industrial past as an inland manufacturing hub equidistant to both New York City and Philadelphia.

Situated just under a three-hour drive from Penn State’s main campus in State College, Allentown is deep within the heart of Nittany Lion country, the school’s mascot named after the very mountain lions that patrol the area’s ridges and valleys.

While the Black Bears, the Regional’s #1 seed and as such the ‘home’ team, were dawning their sharp home whites, for all intents and purposes Maine werevery much the visitors, playing very much in hostile enemy territory at the ‘neutral’ venue, facing the ‘road’ team in their own backyard.

#4 seed Penn State, the Regional’s host school sponsoring the event, was handed the ultimate home-ice advantage, with the large majority of the 7,358 fans in attendance creating a sea of Nittany Lion white to blanket the PPL Center.

Plenty of pockets of brave Black Bear blue poked out among the whitewash, maybe a thousand or so Maine fans in total, many of them making the eight-plus hour drive from the greater Bangor area to cheer their Black Bears on in the hope of witnessing the program's first victory in the NCAA Tournament since 2007.

The PPL Center, in the heart of downtown Allentown, is home to the Philadelphia Flyers’ AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

For Maine, who dressed in the Phantoms’ dressing room, the Black Bears were very much a ghost of their usual selves as Friday night quickly became a haunting nightmare with Maine turning out one of their poorest performances of the season at the most inopportune time.

“We got beat in every aspect of the game tonight. Credit to Penn State; they were outstanding,” Head Coach Ben Barr said. “I think they did everything better than we did tonight.”

Penn State’s student section, the “Roar Zone,” was out in full-throated force as the Nittany Lions rode the wave of their energized home crowd to completely overpower the flatfooted Black Bears in every area of the ice.

Happy Valley turned Lehigh Valley into Penn State’s Hockey Valley.

Nittany Lions’ Head Coach, Guy Gadowsky, credited the Roar Zone as a huge reason for the team’s success on the night, comparing the importance of the Penn State majority crowd as being equally influential to motivating the team as the Pegula Ice Area in State College is on a weekly basis.

“It gives [the players] a lot of energy. There’s nothing that we can say as coaches that can match how well the Roar Zone motivates the team,” Gadowsky praised. “We had a big chunk of it come to Allentown, unbelievable support. The Roar Zone was awesome. Believe me, we feel it. So I think it was very similar to our big wins at Pegula; we rode their wave, and it was wonderful to see and wonderful to have their support.”

Meanwhile, the Black Bears dismissed the notion that the hostile crowd overly affected the game’s outcome. 

“I didn’t think it played a huge factor. I thought the atmosphere was great, honestly. Good for them, but at the end of the day, we just have to play better,” Maine’s Brandon Holt said.

After all, a true champion can win anywhere. 

Jekyll and Hyde

Just one week after the high of Maine’s coronation as the Hockey East Tournament Champions, which saw the Black Bears play their most intense, full-throttle, dominant, and scintillating hockey of the year on consecutive nights, Maine could not for the life of them find the same juice this time out.

Perhaps still emotionally and physically spent after their rollercoaster of a weekend at the Garden in Boston, the Black Bears looked slow, disconnected, and a shell of what they were just a week ago.

When Maine is able to fire on all cylinders and play to their insanely intense identity that was on jaw-dropping display last weekend, they look unstoppable.

But when one small piece of the Maine machine is out of whack or just not at 100%, everything falls apart.

This season, the best version of Maine was on display against Denver, the third-period of a Saturday night win over UNH, against Lowell in the playoffs, and, of course, at the Garden. But the Black Bears have also been disjointed on a number of occasions this year: on the Sunday afternoon loss against BC, at the Alfond in a Friday night loss to UConn, and in Maine’s turgid display on the Friday at UMass. 

When it works, it looks unstoppable. But consistently inconsistent, the way the Black Bears are molded, any small deviation from perfectly clicking and Maine ends up looking just plain aimless without their identity.

Maine was their worst version of themselves on Friday night as no matter how hard the Black Bears tried to will the spark back into their legs and jolt themselves into their TD Garden form, Maine looked flat, unconfident, unenergized, and skating like they had bricks in their skates.

“We didn’t have the juice today that we had last week. It really hurts to go out on a game like that; there’s no excuse for it. I don’t know if it was just an emotional high, we weren’t able to find it. The way our team is built, we have to be absolutely locked in, every single guy, and when we have one or two guys off or five, six, seven guys off, it’s not pretty, and that’s what we had tonight. And that’s not on the guys, that’s on [me]. I didn’t prepare them well enough. We can dissect it, but at the end of the day, we got beat by a team that was better than us tonight,” Barr said.

This year’s season-ending loss feels so much more disappointing than last year’s shortcoming to Cornell at this stage last year. Not just because Black Bear Nation’s hopes that this season could finally be the year after Maine’s sparkling display at the Garden, nor because this shortcoming marked the end of the road for the Black Bears’ core group of veterans that have been instrumental to the revitalization of the program.

Friday night’s loss feels so much more devastating than last year’s heartbreak to Cornell for one big reason - how unremarkably Maine played, a shell of the team that Black Bear Nation had witnessed countless times this season. Maine looked out of steam and out of fight by the end of the contest.

Against Cornell, Maine played well but couldn’t take advantage of a first-period five-minute power play and extend their early lead, and were unable to execute on their handful of grade-A chances, thwarted by an impressive goaltending performance by Big Red netminder Ian Shane. 

But this time around, the Black Bears were just bad, no two ways about it. Not able to create many scoring chances of real quality substance, Maine was held to 27 shots on goal with only a few grade-A chances by an opponent that entered the tournament leaking the 23rd most goals against in the entire nation (3.1 GAA) and 13th most shots against in the country (31.5 SAA).

Friday night was the first time the Nittany Lions had held their opponents to one goal or less since February 7th, eleven games ago.

The Black Bears took an early lead four minutes into the game from the most fortuitous bounce you will ever see off the stick of Bodie Nobes, whose point shot ricocheted off a Penn State body, bounced in the slot near a pursuing Taylor Makar, and tipped off a Nittany Lion stick before flipping high in the air over netminder Arsenii Sergeev and into the back of the net. The advantageous tally marked Nobes’ first collegiate goal.

But that was pretty much the only thing that went right for Maine during the night.

The Black Bears celebrate Bodie Nobes’ first colligate goal, the only highlight for Maine on Friday night. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - UMaine Athletics)

Chasing shadows

The Black Bears, wanting to play a suffocating physical game to bully the Nittany Lions into submission and neutralize Penn State’s blistering speed, were unable to get to the Nittany Lions quickly enough to lay down their hammer of physicality. Instead chasing bodies to check, the Black Bears became undisciplined in their play, trying to make up for always being a step behind Penn State.

No matter how hard Maine tried, they could never muster any momentum into their game, and just 42 seconds after the Black Bears took the lead, Thomas Freel took his first of two first-period penalties.

It took Penn State’s power play just eight seconds to take advantage. Matt DiMarsico won the faceoff draw against Harrison Scott, sweeping the puck back to defenseman Jimmy Dowd Jr. at the point. Dowd fed Charlie Cerrato at the half-wall which sucked Frank Djurasevic out to cover him. Cerrato immediately found Aiden Fink at the goal line with a hard pass. Fink received the pass and pulled David Breazeale over to cover him before making a centering pass to JJ Weisbusch, who was left all alone at the back post to tap Penn State’s equalizer past Albin Boija and send the Roar Zone into a frenzy.

Practically able to pass the puck into the net, the Nittany Lions picked Maine apart at their leisure. Penn State’s precision with the puck tore the Black Bears to shreds all evening long in Maine’s defensive zone, while their speed in transition burned Maine in the neutral zone as the Black Bears were caught flat-footed compared to the Nittany Lions’ tremendous team-speed that could move the puck north-to-south in the blink of an eye.

Ten minutes later, Penn State forced a turnover in their defensive zone and were off to the races, creating a 3-on-2 with their feet, motoring past the Black Bear backcheckers who were left in the dust. DiMarscico sprung the counterattack with a pass into center ice onto the tape of Hobey Baker Award nominee Fink, who moved it out wide to Cerrato. Gaining the zone, Fink drove to the net, opening up a passing lane for Cerrato to feed back to DiMarsico, who had a step on Scott and fired a postage-stamp perfect shot from the slot to put the Nittany Lions into the lead.

The Nittany Lions’ thundering feet were beating the Black Bears' brawn in every area of the ice.

“One thing coach Gadowsky preaches is that we play a speed game,” DiMarsico said. “We’re looking for defense to turn into offense. Sometimes when they turned the puck over early, we had a couple of odd-man breaks and just finished in the back of the net.”

Two minutes after Penn State took the lead, Thomas Freel went back to the sin bin, this time for a slashing call. The Nittany Lions’ power play roared again when Penn State was able to marginally keep the puck in the zone, setting up Danny Dzhaniyev to throw a hard puck along the ice towards Boija’s net. Dane Dowiak, on the doorstep, got his stick on the shot-pass, redirecting it past Boija to double Penn State’s advantage. Barr challenged the call for offsides in the lead-up to the goal, but the officials couldn’t find an angle that undisputedly showed the puck leaving the zone, and the goal stood.

Early in the second period, things went from bad to worse for Maine, with the Black Bears handing the Nittany Lions’ Cerrato a gift-wrapped turnover behind Boija’s net. Cerrato found DiMarsico in the slot, who ripped Penn State into a three-goal advantage.

Down by three, the Black Bears could never summon any extended offensive zone time to put Penn State on their heels, ramp up the pressure, and begin to turn the screw. Maine’s forecheck never materialized as the Nittany Lions were able to break past the Black Bears’ press with ease, never allowing Maine to feast on any turnovers. Out of ideas and never able to muster any momentum, the Black Bears were never able to get going and establish themselves in the contest.

“They moved pucks fast, they played fast up the ice, quick in transition, and we weren’t as aggressive as we usually are. We weren’t able to get stops on pucks, and we just allowed them to skate freely throughout the ice, and it ended up costing us the game,” Nolan Renwick said.

Desperately fighting for the continuation of their season, the Nittany Lions shut down Maine’s offense. The Black Bears were never able to get to the net, make things difficult for Sergeev, or sniff out any rebounds from their majority of pot shots on net.

Mirroring the play on the ice, anytime the scattered Alfond Faithful got a “Let’s Go Black Bears “ chant going, the Roar Zone immediately drowned them out.

Penn State was suffocating the Black Bears, who had no remedy for the situation as the Nittany Lions completely neutralized any Maine fightback, strangling any hopes for a Black Bears comeback.

“We preached a give them nothing attitude and when we do that and focus on ourselves we are really good,” Dowd Jr. said.

It wasn’t as if Maine wasn’t working their tails off, but the Black Bears were just so disjointed, frustrated, and out of answers that they went lifelessly into the night as heads began to drop and shoulders became slouched on the Maine bench midway through the third period.

“For whatever reason, we just couldn’t get any traction,” Barr said. “Tough way for us to end our season.”

“If it was a simple shortcut answer, we probably would have figured it out and changed it. A lot of things go into it. I really don’t want to look back at it right now,” Renwick added when asked why Maine was unable to find any fightback, still fully dressed a good 45 minutes after the buzzer sounded on the end of Maine’s season and his career as a Black Bear, clearly not wanting to take of the scripted Maine sweater for one final time.

A bitter ending to a miraculous season

Dane Dowiak put the dagger in Maine’s season with an empty-net goal as the tears began to flow from the Black Bears on the ice and off of it.

“It’s going to sting; it’s hard to see the positives after a game like that,” Barr said. “We accomplished one of our goals last week, which was really cool, but we didn’t accomplish the ultimate goal, which hurts.”

The Black Bears console each other after the final buzzer marks a heartbreaking end to a miraculous season. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - UMaine Athletics)

A devastating end to a magical season, Friday night broke Black Bear Nation’s hearts. 

But those hearts were equally as filled with pride as they were left broken.

What Maine was able to accomplish this season with the pieces they had, compared with those they competed with, was nothing short of magical.

A sum so much greater than their parts, the Black Bears showed that they could continue to be competitive against the extraordinary riches that much of Hockey East and a lot of college hockey possess.

“I’m sure we’ll look back fondly on all of these guys that are in this room, and a lot of them have probably played their last game in a Maine jersey, they gave it everything they could, and we’re extremely proud of them and fortunate that they came here and helped us do that,” Barr said.

They showed that it can be done the Maine way.

Through sheer heart and willpower, the Black Bears took themselves as far as they could, which was pretty darn far.

Maine re-established itself as a top program in the highest echelon of college hockey and became champions of the best conference in the nation at the same time.

Last season, Maine got their foot in the door.

This year, they showed that it wasn’t just a flash in the pan as they established themselves as serious contenders.

It may not have been the giant leap to the top that the Black Bears and their fans so desperately wanted, but it was a climb in the right direction nonetheless.

The Maine Black Bears are truly back and are here to stay.

The Black Bears have done their State and its people tremendously proud.

The Alfond is alive and well, Maine is back on the map, and the future has never looked so bright.

Is it October yet?

The end of an era

Thank you, David, Lynden, Nolan, Harrison, Taylor, and Ross. 

The core group that took Maine from the basement to nearly the tippy-top.

Maine hockey is miles better off because of you. You set the standard, changed the culture, raised the bar, and have left the program in its best position in decades.

With Black Bear hockey now as sturdy as can be, the foundation has been laid for Maine’s rise high into the sky to continue.

Every future success and piece of hardware will have your fingerprints all over it.

“I think from a sense of pride, to be able to turn on a Black Bear game in ten years and see them in a competitive position, that’s all that matters to me. To know that I played a part in, like I said before, putting this program on a better path – we always talk about leaving the jersey in a better place – to watch in ten years, number 24 out there on the ice competing his butt off, that would be the most rewarding thing for me,” Renwick said. “I will always be a Black Bear; I’ll bleed blue for the rest of my life, I’ll cheer for the team for the rest of my life, and to know that I had a part in kind of righting this ship and putting the program on a better path, it means a lot and I hope that I had an impact on many Black Bears for many generations to come.”

On the backs of giants, future Black Bears will forever stand tall. 

From there, Maine will be able to reach the holy grail

It will happen one day, mark my words.

But for now, we’ll salute the 2025 Hockey East Tournament Champions, your University of Maine Black Bears.

The Journey North continues.