ORONO, Maine - The No. 6-seeded University of Maine men's hockey team will host rival and No. 11-seed New Hampshire this weekend in a best-of-three opening round of the Hockey East playoffs. Friday and Saturday's contest are set to being at 7:30 p.m. while the if-necessary game three on Sunday would be played at 4 p.m. The call of all three games can be
heard online or on 103.9 FM, 101.3 FM, 1450 AM or 1310 AM. Friday's game can be watched on NESN/Fox 22-Bangor/Fox College Sports while Saturday's games can be watched on Fox 22-Bangor/Fox College Sports. Should there be a game three, it will not air on television.
All three games can be streamed online through HockeyEastOnline.TV. Pack Network is the exclusive streaming partner of the Hockey East Tournament's opening round. Fans can purchase a league pass for access of to up to 21 Hockey East playoff games for $59.95 or one game for $9.95.
GAME INFORMATION
Game #35: Maine Black Bears vs. New Hampshire Wildcats
DATE: Friday, March 2, 2018
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine
Game #36: Maine Black Bears vs. New Hampshire Wildcats
DATE: Saturday, March 3, 2018
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine
Game #37: Maine Black Bears vs. New Hampshire Wildcats (if necessary)
DATE: Sunday, March 4, 2018
TIME: 4:00 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 16-14-4 (10-11-3 HEA), New Hampshire 10-18-6 (5-14-5 HEA)
About the Black Bears
• Maine closed out the regular season last weekend with a two-game set at Boston College.
• The Black Bears dropped Friday night's game, 6-3, and got nipped in Saturday's contest, 2-1.
• Ten different skaters recorded at least one point on the weekend for Maine.
• Maine hosted Boston College on Feb. 17 in the final regular season game at Alfond Arena, coming up on the short end of a 5-0 score.
• The Black Bears had traveled to rival UNH just days prior, skating away with an overtime comeback win, 4-3, on Feb. 14.
• Maine finished the regular season tied for sixth place in the Hockey East standings, marking the best finish for the Black Bears since they also finished sixth during the 2013-14 season.
About the Wildcats
• UNH closed out the regular season last weekend with a home-and-home with Northeastern, falling 8-0 on Friday in Boston and 4-0 on Saturday in Durham.
• The Wildcats have 12 players in double-digit scoring, including team-leader Michael McNicholas (5-19—23), who has 11 assists and two goals on the power-play.
• Daniel Tirone has played 84.8 percent of the team's minutes in goal and has four shutouts on the season to go with his 2.60 goals against average and .915 save percentage.
• UNH – who was tabbed eighth in the Hockey East Preseason Coaches' Poll – has outscored boasts the conference's first (88.6%) and nation's fifth-best penalty kill (87.6%).
• The Wildcats started the year with five-straight wins, sweeping UMass Lowell and Colgate before splitting a home series with Colorado College; they are 1-7-2 in their last 10 games.
The Series with the Wildcats
• Maine and UNH have squared off 131 times prior to Friday's game, with Maine holding an edge of 64-58-9 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 before Maine's 4-3 overtime win at the Whittemore Center on Valentine's Day.
• 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.
• UNH head coach Dick Umile is 11-25-5 all-time at Alfond Arena.
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 3.09 goals per game average is tied for 15th in the country.
• Black Bear blue liners are averaging .65 goals per game, which is tied 11th nationally.
• Freshman goaltender
Jeremy Swayman is third in the nation among rookies with 13 wins.
It's Worth Noting…
• Freshman
Eduards Tralmaks is tied for fourth in the league in rookie scoring (9-14—23).
• Freshman
Brady Keeper is tied for fifth in the league for rookie defensemen scoring (6-10—16).
• Maine has 12 players in double-digit scoring and has received goals from 19 different players, assists from 21 and points from 21.
•
Mitchell Fossier (11-19—30) is tied for fifth in Hockey East in scoring, the lone underclassmen in the top five and one of three in the top 10.
• 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 10-2-1 overall when he tallies at least one point.
Border Battle, cont.
• Maine's 4-3 overtime win at New Hampshire on Feb. 14 gave the Black Bears the season series with a 1-0-2 record.
• The win also marked Maine's first overtime road win since a 3-2 victory at Vermont on Oct. 30, 2010.
• It was Maine's eighth ever overtime win against the Wildcats in 18 overtime tilts (8-2-8).
Strange Occurrence
• Maine was whistled for five penalties in its game against BC on Feb. 17 but because of other penalties occurring, the Eagles did not experience a power-play opportunity.
• It was the first time since Feb. 19, 2010 against UMass Lowell that Maine's opponent did not have a chance on the man-advantage.
• That game against UMass Lowell was also the last time Maine played a game without committing a penalty.
• The last time Maine itself did not get a power-play opportunity was on Dec. 14, 2013 against American International College.
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 12 in NCAA men's DI hockey this season and one of two in Hockey East (Ross Colton, Vermont)
• 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.
Twenty Straight
• Maine was shutout for the first time in 20 games on Feb. 17 against BC.
• The Black Bears had scored at least two goals in 20 straight games, the longest such streak in Hockey East this season.
