ECH “Out East” WEEK 3: MAINE TAKES A TRIP SOUTH AND LEAVES MATTHEWS SILENT
By Brendan Locke - November 1, 2024
For the first time in this young 2024-2025 season, “Out East” stayed in Boston! Making a trip down from Orono were the Black Bears of Maine as Northeastern played host to a top 10 team in the nation for the first time this season.
Matthews Arena is one of my favorite places in hockey. Some of the seats have a view of about 10% of the ice, while others feel like you are hanging over the ice about to fall into one of the benches. It’s getting knocked down at the end of the season, but it is a special place not only in Hockey East but in all of New England hockey. I would urge everyone, if possible, to pay a visit to this pantheon of Boston sports.
Yes, this is a real seat at Matthews Arena
Maine catapulted back into the national spotlight for the first time since making the Frozen 4 in the 2007 season, head coach Ben Barr in his 3rd season has turned around this team in short order and now has the burden of expectations as the black bears made it to the TD Garden last year in the Hockey East playoffs for the first time since 2012, they would fall to BU in that semi-final and then follow that up with a loss to Cornell in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The big question for this Maine team is how they perform away from Alfond Arena. Last season, they were 12-2-2 on home ice, but just 8-8 on the road. If Maine wants to be in a national title conversation, they must be better on the road. Maine came into this game unbeaten coming off a massive top 10 sweep over the number 7 ranked team in the country Quinnipiac, combined with a win over AIC to kickstart the season the Black Bears were off to a dream start.
As for Northeastern the Huskies brought in a strong recruiting class after a disappointing record in the regular season highlighted by a Beanpot win, their 5th in the 6 iterations of the tournament. The Huskies had a record of 17-16-3 capped by a loss to BU in the quarterfinal of the Hockey East tournament. It was not for lack of big wins last season that held Northeastern in the middle of the pack in fact the Huskies played spoiler many times throughout the season with wins over number ranked 1 BC, number 3 BU, and beating this same Maine team twice once at home and once on the road. The problem that Northeastern had last season is that they did not clean up anted beat the team that they were supposed to with losses to UConn, UMass Lowell, and Vermont. That is what the great teams Hockey East clean up on the bottom 1/3rdof teams within their conference. The margins at the top are so slim that slipping up in a game against a bottom-level team could cost you and that is what happened to the Huskies. It has not been the start that head coach Jerry Keefe was aiming for to start this season's campaign as the Huskies took a trip out to defending national champion Denver to start their season and got drummed by a score 5-2 in both games.
Game 1
A nearly capacity crowd at Matthews Arena certainly has some logistical issues but the noise that is created in that tiny little building is unlike anything else in hockey and that is what the Black Bears faced leading up to the puck drop.
NU came out of the gate fast and kept the crowd in it as they used their physicality to their advantage outhitting Maine to start the game. Maine was able to settle themselves down after freshman Joe Connor got called for an unsportsmanlike in what would become a recurring theme for the Huskies throughout the weekend.
Maine would not score on that powerplay and the game would remain scoreless despite penalties for each team but the Northeastern powerplay which had not scored on the season would create little to no chances throughout the game. Another Husky penalty would be called this time Nolan Hayes would head to the box.
Then Maine would open things up.
Thomas Freel notched his 3rd goal of the season and the top 6 for the Black Bears has continued to produce at an incredibly high level.
It would not take long for Maine to find their 2nd either.
Taylor Makar would double the lead less than two minutes later after a tipped puck snuck past Cam Whitehead.
From there it was all Black Bears and the lack of a true goal-scoring presence came the fruition for Northeastern as they were able to get chances in the offensive zone but never able to find a man to finish the job.
The 3rd period was more of the same as Maine dictated the tempo from the time they scored in the 2nd. Oftentimes hemming the Huskies in their own for 3 minutes or more at a time. The only offense that NU was able to create was a long stretch pass through the neutral zone that created a handful of breakaways or 2 on 1s but Albin Boija was able to answer nearly every time.
The Huskies would tack on an empty net to seemingly put the game to rest but Northeastern was able to get a goal back as Cam Lund was able to step up and put a goal on the board for the Huskies to make the game 3-1 with 2 minutes remaining.
Northeastern would pull Whitehead again to try to pull off a minor miracle but the Black Bears battened down defensively and Nolan Renwick added his 4th of the season to give Maine a comfortable 4-1 win.
Game 2
Halloweekend did damper the student section in game 2 despite, people being able to… wear a costume to the game and then go out after? Quite frankly I didn’t quite get it, because Two Saints is going to be open it closes at 2 AM and it’s 50 feet away from the rink. Just walk across the street, I digress but credit to the students who did show up, extra credit to those who showed up in costume. Highlighted by Grimace!
Maybe, just maybe the Huskies can dip into a little bit of the Mets magic from this past summer and go a run with the help of the former McDonalds mascot. The Grimace Huskies have a good ring to them if you ask me.
Northeastern really just needed something good to happen, they had not played with a lead since beating Stonehill in the 1st game of the season 2 weeks prior and Jerry Keefe’s squad needed some goal production to come forward if the Huskies wanted any sort of momentum.
2 minutes into the game it finally felt like Northeastern was not pushing a boulder uphill.
The rest of the first would be more evenly played than the previous 3 that we had seen between the 2 teams. However, penalties proved to be a fatal issue for the Huskies as once again Joe Connor would get called to the box for tripping and his 3rd penalty in less than 4 periods of hockey.
NU would survive the Connor penalty and a Maine high sticking by Brandon Chabrier would give NU a grade-A opportunity to grow the lead but Cam Lund would follow that up with a penalty of his own while on the powerplay and Northeastern special teams would continue to kill the Huskies.
However, the junior would make up for it fresh out of the penalty box.
This was absolutely outrageous, he shoulders the puck to himself walks in, and shelfs it, one of the best goals of this young season in hockey east.
Then things would unravel for the Huskies.
Ben Poitras would be called for a facemask penalty after a scrum behind the net, a big call because it is an automatic 5-minute major. A review would take place and the call was confirmed. The Black Bears would have 5 minutes to work on a powerplay that had killed NU the previous night.
They would capitalize
Maine would cut the lead to 2-1 at the end of the 2ndand despite the feeling that the Huskies had played good to very good 40 minutes of hockey, they were letting the number 6 team in the nation hang around.
Once again, a Northeastern penalty would get things started. Too many men on the ice, the most preventable penalty in hockey, and despite the Black Bears not scoring it would provide the momentum needed to create an offensive zone turnover and Sully Schole would be the beneficiary.
Chances on both ends in the final 10 minutes but neither would capitalize and we would head to overtime. You could sense in the building that NU needed a win, Maine trying to play the spoiler and the Dog House was trying to do its part.
Tarps off!
Anything to help the boys get a win!
NU would have most of the chances in the overtime period including nearly at the buzzer as Joe Connor just missed on a 2 on 1 chance.
To a shootout, we go.
Charlie Russell would get the scoring started and 3 straight shooters would be denied before Sully Schole would end the game beating Whitehead 5-hole to end the game.
On the record, this will go down as a tie, but this felt like a loss for Northeastern up 2 goals, committing a 5-minute major, then giving up the tying goal in the 3rd. It is one that they will want back and despite the efforts of Grimace and the tarps-off crowd, it was not to be.
Takeaways
Maine absolutely looks the part of a top team in the country, I was incredibly impressed with their coach Ben Barr, his ability to adjust throughout a game when they were down is the hallmark of a high-level coach and that is what Maine has. The top 6 for the Black Bears can go and produce at an incredibly high level. Josh Nadeau is as advertised despite his brother no longer being his linemate, his ability to create is as high as anybody in Hockey East. Taylor Makar the transfer from UMass (yes that Makar) is a big heavy top-line forward who can get behind defensemen. Ross Mitton, a graduate transfer from Colgate, may have the hardest shot I’ve ever seen, not afraid to rip any time he has the puck going over the blue line. On the defensive end, Brandon Holt is as good as I have seen this season, he won Hockey East Defensemen of the Month for October, and for good reason, can jump up in the play when needed and scored in game 2 but is equally as responsible on the defensive end. Liam Lesakowski is listed as 6’5 but plays bigger than that. He is just a sophomore and will continue to improve throughout the season. The Black Bears are for real, and they are not a team that you are going to want to see as the season progresses. The question remains how good they will be away from home but their only big-time road game as it stands right now is at BC later this month. BU and Denver will both visit Alfond later this season.
Northeastern has a lot to work on they need to somehow find top-level scoring with what they have. The Huskies were able to produce at a slightly better rate in game 2 but once Maine adjusted NU was not able to build up very often. The defense has some nice pieces, Nolan Hayes is going to have a lot on his plate as just a sophomore as will freshman Jack Henry. Jake Higgins, a Holy Cross transfer plays valuable minutes in a top 4 D role. Vinny Borgesi will be a key cog on the defense end for the Huskies, in game 1 the junior had little impact on the flow of the game but in game 2 he has a massive difference, jumping into the play as the 4th forward and creating offensively. If the forwards aren’t going to produce at a high rate for the Huskies they need to find someone on the defensive end to score Borgesi may have to be that guy. For the forwards, Cam Lund is an established top forward but cannot do it all on his own despite 4 goals in his last 4 goals. Dylan Hryckowian is going to need to step into a big role and produce at a high level. Jack Williams had 17 goals last season and will most likely need to improve that number for the Huskies to be a high-level team. There are some interesting freshmen for Huskies, Joe Connor has not scored yet this season but finds his way around the net often, a guy that will be leaned on to produce in a top 6 role. The question is going to come from the depth pieces for NU can Colgate transfer Ryan McGuire step up? He had 14 goals last season in the ECAC and is going to need a similar total. It all depends on scoring for the Huskies because the goaltending is there in Cam Whitehead. We know NU can do it for a game, but putting a season together may become a challenge.
This week
