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University of Maine 2024–2025: Freel-ing good

Sparkee said:
Maine is tied for 3rd in the country in goals for per game.

Maine is 4th in the country on power play percentage at 27.3%.

Maine lost a game, but let’s not characterize them based solely off one loss.

Maine had 95 shots, of which 27 were blocked. 45 were on net. Their goalie played well and Maine was snake bitten.

Maine will take a dip in the poll and PWR but will be fine in the long run.
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Thats all great, but the topic at hand is the game in Portland.
 
Drew S. said:
I’ll be very impressed if Maine can make the NCAA tournament with Breen missing the second half. Even when he was healthy seemed like they were missing something they had last year. The rest of the schedule will be really difficult and Maine will need to be a lot better at both ends of the ice.
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Not making the NCAAs would be an absolute failure for this team with or without Breen. We fell back to #7 in the pairwise after losing, but the remaining home schedule is favorable after DU. Split or better on the road and we are a 2 seed again.
 
walrus said:
Thats all great, but the topic at hand is the game in Portland.
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“I don't see this team as very deep offensively, they score by Committee and when the D is packed in like it was those scores off rebounds weren't there.” -Walrus

In that statement you went beyond the single game characterization and are saying this team isn’t deep offensively. Yet they are tied for 4th in the country in goals for per game. And every forward has scored a goal at least. And by your own observation Maine scores by committee. So deductive reasoning suggests this offense is actually deep. If a team was shallow, they would have all their scoring coming from the top two lines. In fact almost anyone that can be considered an expert(Coach Barr, announcers, etc…) describe Maine as having a lot of depth and the most in a long time.

So my point is that one game doesn’t negate the entire first half of the season. They obviously ran into a goalie on a good night. Maine had 95 shot attempts, so the work ethics was there and the time of possession was there. If teams want to try and pack it in and let Maine dominate them in time of possession then let them. It isn’t a recipe that will work often.
 
I completely agree with Sparkee. Maine is good, and "scoring by committee" means inherently that there is depth on the roster. Is Bentley a team you "should" beat, sure, but let's not act like they are Army, RIT, Mercyhurst, etc. SOG is not a definitive stat by any means, but if Maine can have the shots edge 45-19 every game then I like their chances in most of those games. I also completely agree with McGovern, missing the national tournament would be a disaster for this team unless they lose several more core contributors for the season. Outside of the next two series, which are both admittedly pretty tough, the rest of second semester dosen't really have any weekends I would circle on my calendar as top threats aside from @Providence in February. I still have full confidence in the team.
 
Well, the remaining schedule is no cake walk. Yeah bu, bc and nu are behind, but, big but, no one in HE is a push over. Vt is struggling but they can bite you like Bentley.
 
blackbears9 said:
People always overreact after a bad loss, nothing new. Maine outplayed Bentley and lost, it happens. I'll be worried if they don't at least split with Denver and win 3/4 against Lowell and UConn.
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Denver tied UNLV, 6-6so Maine’s not to only team with something to prove….luckily Denver will be without coach and top D man
 
blackbears9 said:
People always overreact after a bad loss, nothing new. Maine outplayed Bentley and lost, it happens. I'll be worried if they don't at least split with Denver and win 3/4 against Lowell and UConn.
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Yeah, that's it in a nutshell.

If Maine doesn't make the tourney (and probably as a 2 or 3 seed), I'll be very surprised.
 
Sparkee said:
“I don't see this team as very deep offensively, they score by Committee and when the D is packed in like it was those scores off rebounds weren't there.” -Walrus

In that statement you went beyond the single game characterization and are saying this team isn’t deep offensively. Yet they are tied for 4th in the country in goals for per game. And every forward has scored a goal at least. And by your own observation Maine scores by committee. So deductive reasoning suggests this offense is actually deep. If a team was shallow, they would have all their scoring coming from the top two lines. In fact almost anyone that can be considered an expert(Coach Barr, announcers, etc…) describe Maine as having a lot of depth and the most in a long time.

So my point is that one game doesn’t negate the entire first half of the season. They obviously ran into a goalie on a good night. Maine had 95 shot attempts, so the work ethics was there and the time of possession was there. If teams want to try and pack it in and let Maine dominate them in time of possession then let them. It isn’t a recipe that will work often.
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I'm on record here saying this is the best team Maine has had in a long time. Portland game hasn't changed my mind. Maine needs goals from someone else( the Committee) besides Scott to be successful. We shall see what happens against DU
 
walrus said:
Thats all great, but the topic at hand is the game in Portland.
Click to expand...

There certainly is no Alfond Advantage playing in Portland. Definitely plays and sounds more like a neutral ice venue. But like I say, good teams find a way to win in those conditions, and I think Maine did most everything they possibly could to put the puck in the back of the net. As you know, sometimes it just doesnt happen, even to great teams. We've seen it numerous times over the years even with Walshy teams. Its a tough pill to swallow, but sometimes you just gotta do it to cure what might be ailing you. Good win for Bentley, hats off. Next up, the Pios.
 
acs64 said:
There certainly is no Alfond Advantage playing in Portland. Definitely plays and sounds more like a neutral ice venue. But like I say, good teams find a way to win in those conditions, and I think Maine did most everything they possibly could to put the puck in the back of the net. As you know, sometimes it just doesnt happen, even to great teams. We've seen it numerous times over the years even with Walshy teams. Its a tough pill to swallow, but sometimes you just gotta do it to cure what might be ailing you. Good win for Bentley, hats off. Next up, the Pios.
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Yeah, like the loss to Denver in Boston in the finals.
 
From the game preview on goblackbears.com it says Josh Nadeau is chasing Michel Levielle for most points early in Maine career…

“• Josh Nadeau's 58 points in his first 53 games as a Black Bear mark the most by a Maine player since Michel L?veill? had 61 points in his first 53 games.”

That’s pretty good company. Levielle is 15th in all time scoring for Maine.

Yearbook: https://issuu.com/bdnsections/docs/...kixljJIeMxJaQQ54Bg_aem_ZwhrAvwRico7dT3FQV9Qbg

​​​​​​​Denver Game Preview: https://goblackbears.com/news/2024/...view-7-maine-hosts-6-denver-to-open-2025.aspx
 
A limited amount of club seats have been released on Ticketmaster for the Hockey East Semifinals and Finals at TD Garden. I know some of you have been waiting for them. Today’s also the last day to get the 10% discount on tickets.
 
Weekly Media Availability:

Coach Barr https://youtu.be/U-2BkOiPLAw?feature=shared

Barr brought up the three things that lead to the goals given up to Bentley. The first was that weird turnover by Djuresevic that took funny bounce and wound up on Bentley forward tape in on Boija alone. Second was that face off where Holt and Antonacci somehow had a miscue and let two guys get underneath them, which cause screen and traffic in front to get that tip in. Third one is the bad line change, Pichette didn’t get it deep, and at same time Nadeau didn’t get on ice very fast and was not in anything resembling a hurry to back check. Turns out that guy he could have backchecked was 4th guy in Duerr and he scored the goal. Not sure why he was so late to get onto the ice. Some communication issue there or something. Boija can’t really be faulted for any of those goals.

Captain Breazeale https://youtu.be/AArWtRbJ8FE?feature=shared
 
Happy New Year fellow Maine fans. Hope for a healthy new year more than anything else. The 2nd half of the season starts this weekend, should be fun and we will get an idea how the teams stands up against the best team over the last 3 years. Hopefully we can get a win or 2.
 
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