ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine men's hockey team will travel to rival New Hampshire on Wednesday for the rare weeknight night battle. The two teams played a two-game set at Alfond Arena three weeks ago, fighting through overtime and tying on both nights. The call of the tilt can be heard online or on 103.9 WVOM-FM while a stream will also be available online on ESPN3.
 

WATCH: ESPN3

LISTEN

LIVE STATS

TWITTER UPDATES

GAME INFORMATION
Game #31: Maine Black Bears at New Hampshire Wildcats
DATE: Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Whittemore Center - Durham, N.H.
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 15-11-4 (9-8-3 HEA), New Hampshire (10-14-6, 5-10-5 HEA)

Maine game notes

About the Black Bears    
• Maine went toe-to-toe with No. 8 Providence on Friday but Scott Conway scored with 48.6 seconds left in overtime to give the Friars a 3-2 home win.
• Jeremy Swayman finished with 39 saves while Ryan Smith and Chase Pearson found the net.
• The weekend prior, Maine split two overtime Hockey East tilts with Merrimack, winning 4-3 on Feb. 2 before falling 3-2 on Feb. 3.
• Brendan Robbins tallied his first career hat trick and Patrick Shea tipped home the game-winning goal 20 seconds into overtime for the win but Maine's comeback bid on Feb. 3 fell short.
• Jan. 26-27, Maine went to UMass and came away with a pair of 3-2 wins to earn a regular season series sweep.
• On Jan. 26, Cedric Lacroix scored a short-handed goal with 5:02 to play in the third period to help Maine to a 3-2 win while the next night, Pearson scored twice and Emil Westerlund also found the net.
• Maine and UMass had also faced off on Tuesday, Jan. 16, with Maine winning, 3-1, in Orono.
• Pearson, who has a six-game point-streak, leads Maine in points with 27 on seven goals and a team-high 20 assists and he also leads the team in shots on goal (85) and face-off wins (364).

About the Wildcats
• UNH is coming off a tough Hockey East series with Vermont, losing a close 2-1 battle with the Catamounts on Friday before battling to a 2-2 tie on Saturday.
• Ara Nazarian – the team leader in goals (9) – tallied his seventh career multi-point game with a goal and an assist in Saturday's tie.
• The Wildcats have 11 players in double-digit scoring, including team-leader Michael McNicholas (5-18—23), who has 11 assists and two goals on the power-play.
• Daniel Tirone has played 89.8 percent of the team's minutes in goal and has four shutouts on the season to go with his 2.52 goals against average and .919 save percentage.
• UNH – who was tabbed eighth in the Hockey East Preseason Coaches' Poll – has outscored opponents by a margin of 80-78 and boasts the nation's second-best penalty kill (88%).
• The Wildcats started the year with five-straight wins, sweeping UMass Lowell and Colgate before splitting a home series with Colorado College.

The Series with the Wildcats
• Maine and UNH have squared off 130 times prior to Wednesday's game, with Maine holding an edge of 63-58-9 in the all-time series.
• The Black Bears and UNH battled to two ties back on Jan 19 (2-2) and Jan. 20 (3-3) at Alfond Arena.
• The teams met three times last year, with all meetings taking place in December 2016.
• UNH took both games in a home-and-home series Dec. 2-3, winning 5-1 at the Whittemore Center and then 4-3 at Alfond Arena, and then won a matchup at SNHU Arena, 6-4, on Dec. 30.
• The Wildcats and Black Bears first played on Dec. 15, 1979 at Alfond Arena, with John Tortorella scoring the game-winning goal in the Black Bears' 5-3 victory.
• Maine has had two different nine-game winning streaks in the heated series.
• Current Maine assistant coach Alfie Michaud had seven career wins against UNH, including a stretch of five-straight beginning with a Feb. 1, 1998 win and stretching to the April 3, 1999 National Championship, 3-2, overtime win at Arrowhead Pond.

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.

National Stat Check
• As a team, Maine's 3.23 goals per game average is 10th in the country and second in Hockey East behind Northeastern (3.34).
• Black Bear blue liners are averaging .63 goals per game, which is 11th in the country and second in Hockey East behind UMass Lowell (.70).
• Freshman goaltender Jeremy Swayman is tied for second in the nation among rookies with12 wins.
• Swayman's .926 save percentage is seventh in the country, tops in Hockey East and s=third nationally amongst rookie netminders.

A Unique Hat Trick
• Brendan Robbins tallied his first career hat trick in Maine's 4-3 overtime win against Merrimack on Feb. 2.
• Robbins scored an even-strength goal in the first period and then converted a penalty shot and tallied a short-handed goal in the second.
• The penalty shot conversion was one of 11 in NCAA men's DI hockey this season.
• Of the 138 hat tricks scored this season and last (60 this year, 78 during the 2016-17 season), Robbins' is one of three to include a penalty shot conversion, joining Brock Voeser of North Dakota an Vinni Lettieri of Minnesota, who both did it last year.
• Maine's last hat trick (Nolan Vesey) and last penalty shot goal (Blaine Byron '17) had both come on Feb. 25, 2017 in a 5-4 win over Northeastern.

It's Worth Noting…
• Maine has 12 players in double-digit scoring and has received goals from 19 different players, assists from 21 and points from 21.
• Chase Pearson (7-20—27) is tied for sixth in Hockey East in scoring while classmate Mitchell Fossier (9-17—26) is tied for eighth, making them the only two underclassmen in the top 10 in conference scoring.
• Maine has scored a goal in all three periods in nine games this season.
• The Black Bears are 5-0-1 this season when Patrick Holway finds the back of the net and 10-1-1 overall when he tallies at least one point.

Second Period Goals
• Maine has scored in the second period of every road game this season, notching 23 total to lead the league and sit second nationally.  
• Maine's 40 second period goals overall is tops in the conference and tied for fourth in the nation.
• The Black Bears scored a goal in the second period in eight straight contests until it came to an end on Jan. 13 and have done so in 24 out of 30 games played this season.

Up Next
• Maine will play its final regular season home game this weekend when the top team in the Hockey East standings, Boston College, comes to Alfond Arena on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

-UMaine-