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Mar. 21—One step closer. By reaching the Hockey East championship game, that's what the University of Maine men's ice hockey team is. Just one step closer.
The Black Bears entered the Hockey East championship game Friday against UConn with a chance to win their first conference title since 2004. Maine hadn't even played in the conference championship game since 2012.
"These guys are phenomenal kids. They've turned themselves from obscurity into a team that can go and play for a championship (Friday)," Maine coach Ben Barr said following a 4-3 double-overtime marathon victory over Northeastern on Thursday. "It's really all those guys in the room. You can tell how hard they played, especially when we went down in that game. Those guys weren't going to be denied. I can't say enough good things about them. Our leaders, how much these guys care. Even how much the state of Maine cares. That gives us more juice than you could ever imagine."
Barr referred to the large and vocal group of Maine fans that invaded TD Garden on Thursday. Every time a Northeastern fan was shown on the big screen above center ice, the boos from the Black Bear faithful echoed throughout the arena. When a Maine fan made it onto the Jumbotron, the cheers reverberated.
This is what Barr was looking to rebuild when he was hired in 2021 to replace the late Red Gendron as Maine's head coach. By winning games and making the Black Bears a national hockey power once again, like the team was from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s, Barr woke up the hibernating fan base.
Maine won seven games in the 2021-22 season, Barr's first. The Black Bears improved to 15 wins the next season, then 23 last season when they advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a dozen years. With 23 wins going into Friday's game against UConn, a return trip to the NCAA tournament is a guarantee. Maine entered Friday ranked third in the PairWise, the system used by the NCAA to determine and seed the tournament field, and that put the Black Bears in line for a top seed at one of the four regional sites.
That's just another step to the ultimate goal. Barr and his players know that. Nolan Renwick, a senior from Milestone, Saskatchewan, scored the game-winner midway through the second overtime Thursday. Scoring the game-winning goal in OT is the dream of every young hockey player, but in college? That wasn't part of what Renwick imagined on the frozen ponds of Milestone.
After four years pulling on the Maine jersey, Renwick gets it now. He saw Thursday's win as a piece of the larger picture. When he spoke of the game plan, peppering Huskies goalie Cam Whitehead with shot after shot, he was also talking about the steps the Black Bears have taken to get there.
"I'll be honest with you. When I was growing up, I really didn't know college hockey existed," he said. "We just stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with the process, and it ended up working out for us."
It took a game and a half of ice time for Maine to beat Northeastern. The Black Bears will be playing on short rest on Friday.
"I think the only preparation we're going to worry about is probably getting as much sleep and hydration as we can. It's great that it goes into two overtimes, and you play the late game, but you've got to turn around and play the next day. That's tough," Barr said.
Sunday afternoon, Maine finds out where it's going in the NCAA tournament. The Black Bears rebuild continues. Thursday night was another step.
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The Black Bears entered the Hockey East championship game Friday against UConn with a chance to win their first conference title since 2004. Maine hadn't even played in the conference championship game since 2012.
"These guys are phenomenal kids. They've turned themselves from obscurity into a team that can go and play for a championship (Friday)," Maine coach Ben Barr said following a 4-3 double-overtime marathon victory over Northeastern on Thursday. "It's really all those guys in the room. You can tell how hard they played, especially when we went down in that game. Those guys weren't going to be denied. I can't say enough good things about them. Our leaders, how much these guys care. Even how much the state of Maine cares. That gives us more juice than you could ever imagine."
Barr referred to the large and vocal group of Maine fans that invaded TD Garden on Thursday. Every time a Northeastern fan was shown on the big screen above center ice, the boos from the Black Bear faithful echoed throughout the arena. When a Maine fan made it onto the Jumbotron, the cheers reverberated.
This is what Barr was looking to rebuild when he was hired in 2021 to replace the late Red Gendron as Maine's head coach. By winning games and making the Black Bears a national hockey power once again, like the team was from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s, Barr woke up the hibernating fan base.
Maine won seven games in the 2021-22 season, Barr's first. The Black Bears improved to 15 wins the next season, then 23 last season when they advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a dozen years. With 23 wins going into Friday's game against UConn, a return trip to the NCAA tournament is a guarantee. Maine entered Friday ranked third in the PairWise, the system used by the NCAA to determine and seed the tournament field, and that put the Black Bears in line for a top seed at one of the four regional sites.
That's just another step to the ultimate goal. Barr and his players know that. Nolan Renwick, a senior from Milestone, Saskatchewan, scored the game-winner midway through the second overtime Thursday. Scoring the game-winning goal in OT is the dream of every young hockey player, but in college? That wasn't part of what Renwick imagined on the frozen ponds of Milestone.
After four years pulling on the Maine jersey, Renwick gets it now. He saw Thursday's win as a piece of the larger picture. When he spoke of the game plan, peppering Huskies goalie Cam Whitehead with shot after shot, he was also talking about the steps the Black Bears have taken to get there.
"I'll be honest with you. When I was growing up, I really didn't know college hockey existed," he said. "We just stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with the process, and it ended up working out for us."
It took a game and a half of ice time for Maine to beat Northeastern. The Black Bears will be playing on short rest on Friday.
"I think the only preparation we're going to worry about is probably getting as much sleep and hydration as we can. It's great that it goes into two overtimes, and you play the late game, but you've got to turn around and play the next day. That's tough," Barr said.
Sunday afternoon, Maine finds out where it's going in the NCAA tournament. The Black Bears rebuild continues. Thursday night was another step.
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