University of Maine 2024–2025: Freel-ing good

[Sparkee]

Good weekend for Maine, take the tie on the road.

Was the ice that bad? Maine whiffed on passes and shots all night. Puck just seemed to stop when it should have kept sliding.

NU really packed it in on D, they weren't allowing Maine to get to net front like they did on Friday.

Don't like 3 0n 3 or shootouts.

It definitely was soft on Friday when I was there. Puddles of water in lots of spots. Specifically behind the net where the Zamboni entrance is. Weather was warmer down in Boston.

NU blocked 16 shots last night. Maine telegraphing too much specifically on the power play.

Having said that this team is showing they have competitive streak and won’t stop when behind by a goal or two.

I feel like the transfers are outplaying the returners. Russell and Mitton brought a lot of speed to the line up. Makar, Mitton, Fowler are all hard hitters.

Loved the shot by Scholle and the feed by Komarov. Brings a smile to my face when I see 4th liners getting on the board especially on the road where due to the last change rules they play a lot of tough shifts against other teams top couple lines.

[StillKIA2]

It happened right in front of me. It was a pretty obvious dive. Wasn’t a bad call. They missed an interference against Makar towards the end of the period though.

Looked to me like he caught the outside edge of his left skate …the replay confirmed it

[umhockey91]

I feel like the transfers are outplaying the returners. Russell and Mitton brought a lot of speed to the line up. Makar, Mitton, Fowler are all hard hitters.

Definitely!

[grooverider]

Maine is going to have to clean up some of that telegraphing on the powerplay and lapses of sloppy play very soon. BC and BU loom and those will be huge tests.

I expect Maine to be a favorable matchup at home against Merrimack.

[amkirby10]

As mentioned, couldn't watch the game last night. But even so, I agree with the others here that the powerplay really needs to improve in short order. In my view, easily the biggest weakness of Ben Barr's since taking over at Maine is we have never really had a threatening powerplay, save perhaps for first semester last season when the team was being overlooked a bit. I think with the rest of the team's strengths, we don't even have to have a lethally automatic PP a la the Edmonton Oilers, even an average one will do, but we don't even have that. The PP is anemic, and it needs to be fixed if they truly want to be an elite, inner circle team.

[UncleRay]

Early in the season, but Hockey East is shaping up to be another competitive year. 8 of 11 teams have ties in conference play! Nice to see Maine in first place! I would rather see 4 X 4 in OT and get rid of the gimmick shoot out.

I'm a fan of 5-5-5 OT. Five on five (+ goalies) for 5:00.

[walrus]

https://www.tiltheraftersring.com/ In case you didn't know, This guy does pretty good write ups every week.

[StillKIA2]

Maine is going to have to clean up some of that telegraphing on the powerplay and lapses of sloppy play very soon. BC and BU loom and those will be huge tests.

I expect Maine to be a favorable matchup at home against Merrimack.

Bu and bc….then Denver
maine clearly has the toughest 4 weeks in the country during that stretch (with an easy to overlook Bentley game in the middle)

[NewEnglandGuy]

Yeah I don’t like back to back years playing BC and BU in consecutive weekends. Quick check of other teams schedules shows that is atypical within the conference.

[UnMcGovernable]

5 of 6 points is a great road weekend. One thing I've noticed so far, both series featured a player Maine really struggled to contain. Wilmer for QU and Lund for NU stood out every time they were on the ice.

[amkirby10]

Yeah I don’t like back to back years playing BC and BU in consecutive weekends. Quick check of other teams schedules shows that is atypical within the conference.

I've noticed that the conference schedule is very repetitive recently. This is also our third straight year concluding the season against UMass, and at least the second straight season where Vermont is the second to last series.

[Sparkee]

I've noticed that the conference schedule is very repetitive recently. This is also our third straight season concluding the season against UMass, and at least the second straight season where Vermont is the second to last series.

I believe the hockey East schedule mirrors the season last year to even it back out. So likely to keep it easier they scheduled most games in the same time slots just flipped home games for away. I think next year they will start a new schedule and have to. Because some hockey East teams Maine only plays twice and others they play three times. So that would get swapped up too. So starting next year we would likely play BC and BU three times each season and then Northeastern and UNH only twice.

[StillKIA2]

5 of 6 points is a great road weekend. One thing I've noticed so far, both series featured a player Maine really struggled to contain. Wilmer for QU and Lund for NU stood out every time they were on the ice.

Maine did not come close to containing Williams, the Biddeford boy either, Maine just lucked out that he hit posts and shot high and wide all the time (unkess Boija was in perfect position…impossible to say)

[Sparkee]

Maine dropped a spot in the polls. https://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

North Dakota got credit for splitting with BU and jumped ahead of Maine.

[grooverider]

Maine dropped a spot in the polls. https://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

North Dakota got credit for splitting with BU and jumped ahead of Maine.

I guess...Minnesota is getting some banked rep..their schedule has been meh to say the least.