The 2023–24 Maine Black Bears Men's ice hockey season was the 49th season of play for the program, the 47th season competing at the Division I level, and the 40th in Hockey East. The Black Bears represented the University of Maine, played their home games at the Alfond Arena and were coached by Ben Barr in his 3rd season.
For the second year in a row, Maine had a significant amount of roster turnover but it was the addition of the Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh, that brought about the biggest change. The two swiftly established themselves as top offensive threat for the Black Bears and helped chance a middling team into one of the nation's top squads. They were not alone, however, as the defense, led by co-Captain David Breazeale, performed tremendously by routinely holding opposing teams under 30 shots per game.[1] This relatively light workload enabled Victor Östman to get off to a good start and backstop the Bears to a 6–1–1 record by mid-November. With wins over defending champion Quinnipiac and #1 Boston College, Maine shot up the national rankings and found themselves in the top 10 before Thanksgiving.
A sweep at the hands of Boston University briefly halted the teams ascent but Maine proceeded to win the next seven games, including the Ledyard Bank Classic, and were positioned for an NCAA tournament berth by the start of January. Unfortunately, an injury to Östman forced the team to turn to Albin Boija as the starter for several games. The freshman played well at the start but as he assumed the majority of the workload his play began to suffer. Goaltending problems were compounded by a dip in scoring in February that saw the team lose five of six games and drop out of contention for a Hockey East championship. Maine recovered at the end of the season by sweeping Massachusetts to guarantee themselves a bye into the quarterfinal round and punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament.
They faced an old foe, New Hampshire, in the Hockey East tournament. With both teams experiencing a renaissance, the Nadeaus put their stamp on the rivalry by each scoring 4 points in the game.[2] The unambiguous win sent Maine to the semifinals where another long-time rival, BU, used a solid performance on the power play to knock out the Black Bears.[3]
Mine ended the year at #5 in the PairWise rankings, giving the team a #2 seed and setting them against Cornell in the Northeast Regional. Östman got his first start in over a month and the gamble seemed to pay off early when took a lead less than 6 minutes into the game. Shortly afterwards, the Big Red were handed a 5-minute major and the Black Bears had a tremendous opportunity to take over the match. Maine Pressured the Cornell cage for much of the power play but could not increase their lead. Instead, the performance by the Big Red goaltender turned the momentum against Maine and just minutes after the penalty ended, the score was tied. The Black Bears skated hard, searching to regain the lead, but nothing they threw on the net landed. Cornell, too, had its chances but Östman made several sparkling saves to keep the score knotted. Just past the midway point of the match, Cornell finally broke the tie with a straight shot from the right circle. Now with the lead, the Big Red began to play an oppressive brand of defense and limit Maine's chances. The Black Bears were unable to get many opportunities for the rest of the game and, as time slowly ticked away on their season, the team became desperate. Disaster struck when Cornell was able to get a goal off of the rush halfway through the third and all but ended Maine's chances. It wasn't until Östman was pulled that the Bears were able to get many shots on goal but nothing they tried worked and the team went down in defeat.[4]
| Dawson Bruneski | Defenseman | Graduate transfer to Alaska | ||
| Samuel Duerr | Defenseman | Left program (retired) | ||
| Matthew Fawcett | Forward | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Grant Hebert | Forward | Graduation (signed with Allen Americans) | ||
| Didrik Henbrant | Forward | Graduation (signed with Nottingham Panthers) | ||
| Killian Kiecker-Olson | Forward | Left program (retired) | ||
| Robert Kincaid | Defenseman | Left program (retired) | ||
| Michael Mancinelli | Forward | Left program (retired) | ||
| Justin Michaelian | Forward | Graduation (signed with Iowa Heartlanders) | ||
| Jake Mucitelli | Goaltender | Left program (retired) | ||
| Defenseman | Graduation (signed with HC Olomouc) |
| Albin Boija | Goaltender | 20 | Sundsvall, SWE | ||
| Patriks Bērziņš | Goaltender | 20 | Talsi, LAT | ||
| Anthony Calafiore | Forward | 21 | Staten Island, NY | ||
| Jack Dalton | Defenseman | 20 | River Forest, IL
| ||
| Ryan Hopkins | Defenseman | 19 | Lunenburg, NS | ||
| Liam Lesakowski | Defenseman | 19 | Buffalo, NY | ||
| Forward | 18 | Saint-François-de-Madawaska, NB
| |||
| Josh Nadeau | Forward | 19 | Saint-François-de-Madawaska, NB | ||
| Nicholas Niemo | Forward | 22 | Middlebury, VT
| ||
| Bodie Nobes | Defenseman | 20 | Kitchener, ON | ||
| Sully Scholle | Forward | 20 | Chaska, MN | ||
| Harrison Scott | Forward | 22 | San Jose, CA
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As of March 7, 2024.[5]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
See main article: 2024 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament.
| Game summary | |
| The start to the game was delayed by an hour and a half due to the other semifinal going into overtime. Once the match began, however, Maine jumped on the puck and attacked the Cornell cage. Ian Shane was able to hold off the Black Bears and The Big Red's staunch defense swiftly came to his aid. Play evened out afterwards and Cornell began to test the Maine goaltender. On a missed chance by the Big Red, the puck was quickly moved up the ice by the Bears. When the Cornell defender blew a tire, Harrison Scott was able to skate to an open spot in the slot and fire the puck over Shane's glove. A few minutes later, Ryan Walsh left his feet when he went to check Bradly Nadeau along the half wall and was given a major penalty. Maine used the time well, keeping the pressure on the Cornell net for most of the 5 minutes but they were unable to build on their lead. After killing off the penalty, Cornell got back to its game and began to pressure Maine on the forecheck. Gabriel Seger was able to steal the puck in the offensive zone and sent the rubber to an open Kyle Penney. Penney walked in a fired the shot from the high slot, beating Östman in the top corner. Maine carried the balance of play for the remainder of the period but were stymied by the Cornell defense. Both teams were skating at the start of the second and ended up exchanging odd-man rushes. As the period wore on, Maine began to take control of the game but on one of the few established zone times for Cornell, Parker Lindauer was whistled for holding and gave the Big Red their first power play of the night. After wasting the first half of the man-advantage, Cornell got two glorious opportunities from the left side of the net but missed the cage both times. Jonathan Castagna then one-timed a laser from the right side but Östman made a brilliant save to keep the game tied. The two then spent several minutes probing for the next goal and, just past the 12-minute mark, Sullivan Mack intercepted the puck on an attempted clear, skated towards the goal and just before a Maine player got within reach, fired the puck past Östman's blocker for Cornell's first lead of the evening. The Big Red carried the momentum for several minutes afterwards but Maine eventually evened out the play. With about 2 minutes to play, George Fegaras attempted to clear the puck but sent it right to a Maine player at his own blue line. Ben Poisson fired the puck on goal and in the ensuing scramble, Sully Scholle ended up skewing Shane's arm when he went for the puck. After a stoppage to check on Shane's health, the goalie remained in the net. Cornell's defense was called upon once more at the end of the period and Maine's offense was held at bay. Cornell got to its game as soon as the third began and did its best to strangle the Maine offense. The Big Red kept the puck in the Bears' end as much as they could, generating scoring chances when they could, but doing so primarily to prevent any shots from being directed at their own cage. Maine wasn't able to get much going until about five minutes into the period but even then Shane was equal to the task. Maine continued to attack but very few of their chances ended up getting on goal. Just after the midway point of the game, Sullivan Mack deflected the puck away from Bradly Nadeau in front of his own net and broke out on an odd-man rush. He skated towards the Maine goal and, just as the defender was passing in front him, fired i the puck into the top corner of the goal. Maine was visibly deflated afterwards and their chances at winning were starting to fade. The Black Bears were able to collect themselves and attack the Cornell cage from time to time but Cornell prevented any extended zone time. Needing 2 goals, coach Ben Barr pulled Östman with three minutes to go in the game. The extra skater gave Maine enough of an advantage to finally get some shots on goal but most were from the perimeter and low percentage. Dalton Bancroft missed an empty net with about 30 seconds to play but that didn't affect the final score and Cornell moved on to the regional final. |
| 37 | 19 | 27 | 46 | 12 | |||
| 37 | 18 | 27 | 45 | 12 | |||
| 37 | 9 | 21 | 30 | 20 | |||
| 37 | 15 | 12 | 27 | 18 | |||
| 36 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 22 | |||
| 37 | 6 | 16 | 22 | 22 | |||
| 37 | 6 | 16 | 22 | 8 | |||
| 37 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 21 | |||
| 33 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 18 | |||
| 33 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 10 | |||
| 25 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 14 | |||
| 37 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 10 | |||
| 34 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | |||
| 25 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 24 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 21 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | |||
| 37 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 10 | |||
| 19 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |||
| 17 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 24 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | |||
| 16 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 23 | |||
| 34 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 36 | |||
| 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | |||
| Total | 119 | 202 | 321 | 322 |
|---|
| 18 | 1014:32 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 34 | 373 | 2 | .916 | 2.01 | ||
| 21 | 1197:56 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 56 | 462 | 0 | .892 | 2.80 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 21:45 | - | - | - | 4 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 37 | 2234:13 | 23 | 12 | 2 | 94 | 835 | 2 | .899 | 2.52 |
|---|
See main article: 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings.
| Poll | Week | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 (Final) | ||
| USCHO.com | NR | NR | NR | NR | 20 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 8 | – | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | – | 10 | |
| USA Today | NR | NR | NR | NR | 20т | 13 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8^ | 7 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 10 | |
| Bradly Nadeau | Hockey East Second Team | [8] |
| Josh Nadeau | Hockey East Third Team | [9] |
| Bradly Nadeau | Hockey East Rookie Team | [10] |