ORONO, Maine -- Men's ice hockey begins the 2016-17 regular season hosting a weekend series against RPI on Oct. 7 and 8 with each game beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Alfond Arena.
All-Time Series
Maine trails the all-time series against RPI 4-5-0. The first meeting took place on February 3, 1979 at Alfond Arena with the Black Bears winning 5-4. Their last meeting was on January 6, 2008 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, with Maine winning 4-2, Ben Bishop earned the win with 18 saves on the night.
A Look at Maine
Maine is looking to prove the pundits wrong as they were picked as the preseason 12 seed heading into the 2016-2017. The roster sees a significant amount of turnover with a total of 9 incoming freshmen, inlcuding 3 incoming NHL draft picks in Chase Pearson (DET), Patrick Holway (DET) and Patrick Shea (FLA).
Scouting The Black Bears
The Black Bears are looking to right the ship after falling to St. Francis Xavier in their most recent exhibition by a final tally of 6-5. Penalty trouble proved to be the Black Bears downfall as they accrued 22 penalty minutes and surrendered 5 powerplay goals.
The freshmen class has already made quite the impact for the Black Bears as both Jake Pappalardo and Chase Pearson (DET) netted their first goals for the Blue and White. Nolan Vesey (TOR), Blaine Byron (PIT) and Eric Schurhamer rounded out the 5 goal burst by the Black Bears.
Looking back a year ago....
Maine completed the 2015 -2016 campaign with an overall 14.1 PP% while killing penalties at a rate of 78.5%. The Black Bears averaged 32.3 shots per game in 15-16 and allowed opponents 33.4 per game.
Rob McGovern and Matt Morris shared time in net last season. Sophomore Rob McGovern finished last season with a 2-14-3 record with a 2.78 goals against average and a .905 save percentage. Red Shirt Senior Matt Morris finished with a 6-10-3 record with a 3.54 goals against average and a .901 save percentage on the season.
Scouting The Engineers
The Engineers of RPI come to Alfond Arena after opening their 2016 season with an exhibition against McGill University of the CIS. The Engineers battled in a penalty ridden game eventually shutting out he Redmen by a final score of 3-0.
The Engineers finished the 2015-2016 season falling to Harvard in the ECAC Playoffs. They finished with an overall record of 18-15-7 (6-8-4 on the road).RPI returns its two leading scorers from the '15-'16 in RIley Bourbonnais (15-11-26) and Lou Nanne (6-17-13) along with dynamic defenseman Mike Prapavessis (4-15-19).
The Engineers finished the 2015-2016 season with a 12.3% powerplay percentage and killed penalties at 83.5%.They scored 2.42 goals per game while allowing 2.6 goals per game.
Tickets
Fans can purchase tickets by visiting goblackbears.com/tickets or by clicking here. Fans can also call the Maine ticket office at 207-581-BEAR (2327).
If you're away from Alfond Arena
Fans can watch the game online: www.goblackbears.com/watch
Listen: www.goblackbears.com/watch
Or follow along live stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/umaine/mhockey/
Black Bear fans can always follow along with Maine Hockey on Twitter @MaineIceHockey
