ORONO, Maine -- The University of Maine men's hockey team will host Hockey East foe Vermont this weekend in the final home games and conference games of the fall semester. Friday's puck drop is set for 7 p.m. while Saturday's is scheduled for 5 p.m. and can also be watched locally on WVII/WFVX/WPME/FOX College Sports. The call of both games can be heard online or on 103.9 WVOM-FM.
 

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GAME INFORMATION
Game #13: Maine Black Bears vs. Vermont Catamounts
DATE: Friday, Dec. 1, 2017
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 5-7-0 (3-4-0 HEA), UVM 4-9-1 (1-5-1 HEA)

Game #14: Maine Black Bears vs. Vermont Catamounts
DATE: Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017
TIME: 5:00 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine

Maine game notes
Vermont game notes

About the Black Bears
• Maine is coming off an international trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland where it played in the 2017 Friendship Four Tournament.
• The Black Bears battled No. 10/11 Providence tough in an all Hockey East semifinal on Nov. 24 but the Friars snuck away with a 3-0 win at SSE Arena.
• Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves for the Black Bears while Rob Michel registered five shots on goal and Brady Keeper had four.
• Maine topped RPI the next night, 4-2, to earn third place in the tournament behind goals from Brendan Robbins, Nolan Vesey, Mitchell Fossier and Tim Doherty.
• The Black Bears earned a conference split with No. 19 Boston University last weekend, winning at Alfond Arena on Friday night before dropping a tilt at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine on Saturday.
• UMaine earned a 5-2 win over the Terriers the first night on the strength of 40 saves from Swayman and five goals from five different players, with Canon Pieper netting the first of his career.
• The Black Bears were 6-for-6 on the penalty kill while going 1-for-3 on the man-advantage.
• The Terriers came back strong on Saturday night to manage a split with a 7-0 win in Portland.
• Eduards Tralmaks leads Maine with nine points on five goals and four assists while Chase Pearson has a team-high eight helpers.

About the Catamounts
• Vermont is coming off a 2-1 overtime win at Dartmouth on Nov. 25 and will be playing in its third-straight road game on Friday night against the Black Bears.
• In the win over the Big Green, freshman Max Kaufman potted the game-winner just 20 seconds into the extra time to earn Hockey East Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week.
• Ross Colton leads UVM in points with eight points on eight goals – including five power-play tallies – while Matt O'Donnell has four goals and four assists and Jarrid Privitera has a team-high six assists.
• The Catamounts penalty kill unit ranks eighth in the nation at a rate of 87.9 percent and fourth in conference play at 85.2 percent.
• Stefanos Lekkas made 22 saves for the win on Nov. 25 and has now started all 14 games that the Catamounts have played this season, going 4-9-1 with a 2.98 goals against average, .912 save percentage and one shutout.
• Lekkas has twice stopped over 40 shots this season and has made at least 30 saves on seven different occasions.
• UVM tied then No. 12 New Hampshire, 4-4, on Oct. 28, with Matt O'Donnell scoring two goals in the third period to force overtime

The Series with the Catamounts
• Maine enters Friday's contest – the 56th meeting between the Black Bears and Catamounts – with a standing of 24-26-5 in the all-time series.
• The Black Bears and Catamounts first met on Feb. 24, 1978 at Gutterson Fieldhouse, with Maine earning a 6-3 win.
• The teams met four times last season at Gutterson Fieldhouse, battling twice in the regular season and twice in the Hockey East playoffs.

About Head Coach Red Gendron
• Red Gendron, who enters his fifth year behind the bench of the Black Bears, has won two NCAA Hockey National Championships and a NHL Stanley Cup as an assistant coach.
• He assisted head coach Shawn Walsh with the UMaine 1993 NCAA Division I National Championship team.
• Before being named the head coach of the Black Bears, Gendron was associate head coach at Yale University; the Bulldogs earned the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship.
• Prior to Gendron's two seasons at Yale, from 2005-11, he was an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts.
• Gendron spent 11 seasons in professional hockey with the New Jersey Devils organization.

Weekly Awards
• Freshman Jeremy Swayman earned Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on Nov. 20 after his 40-save performance in UMaine's 5-2 win over then No.18 BU on Nov. 17.
• The Anchorage, Alaska native stopped 10 shots in the first period and followed it up with 12 in a critical second before racking up 18 in the final frame.
• Eduards Tralmaks was tabbed as the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on Nov. 6, as announced by the Hockey East Association.
• The freshman earned the honor after notching two goals and one assist in Maine's 6-2 win at UMass Lowell on Nov 4.

Blocked Out
• Maine's team average of 14.75 blocks per game is good for eighth overall in the country and second in the league behind UConn.
• The Black Bears have blocked at least 12 shots in all 12 games they have played, with a season-high 20 coming in a 6-3 win over Miami on Oct. 21 and another solid 17 against Providence on Nov. 24.
• Senior Mark Hamilton is averaging 2.70 blocks per game, making him is first in the league and second overall in the nation in that category.
• Classmate Cedric Lacroix is averaging 1.27 blocks per game, tops among Hockey East forwards and 10th in the nation.  

Balanced Attack
• So far this season, the Black Bears have received goals from 14 different players, assists from 17 and points from 19.
• Against BU on Nov. 17, UMaine had 10 different players earn a spot on the scoresheet for the third time this season.
• The Black Bears also had 10 different point-getters in back-to-back games, doing so against Miami on Oct. 20 and 21.
• Against UConn on Oct. 6 and UMass Lowell on Nov. 4, Maine had nine different players register at least one point and had eight get on the stat sheet against RPI on Nov. 25.
• Maine also has six different players with at least one power-play goal.
• All 19 skaters that suited up for the Black Bears in the two-game season-opening series against UConn recorded at least one shot on goal, with Chase Pearson's 10 leading the way.

Fresh Faces
• The Black Bears welcomed 10 freshmen to the fold this fall, making it the third largest freshmen class in Hockey East this year behind UMass (13) and Vermont (12).
• The 10 new Black Bears are tied for third largest NCAA freshman class, joining Cornell, Minnesota Duluth and Quinnipiac.
• The new group includes one goaltender, four defensemen, and five forwards.
• It marks the second-straight year the UMaine has had 10 freshmen on the roster.
• The last time that the Black Bears had more than 10 freshmen on the roster came in the 2007-08 season, which marked the rookie year of the likes of Brian Flynn, Scott Darling and Gustav Nyquist.

Feeling the Draft?
• The 2017-18 UMaine roster includes five NHL draft picks, including three in 2015.
• Nolan Vesey went to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2014.
• In 2015, Patrick Shea was selected by the Florida Panthers while Patrick Holway and Chase Pearson both went to the Detroit Red Wings .
• This year, Jeremy Swayman went to the Boston Bruins in the fourth round.

-UMaine-