College Hockey Series of the Week: No. 5 Maine vs No. 16 UMass

With it being the final week of the regular season in the Hockey East Association, teams are jockeying for position in the standings to get the best possible seeding for the conference tournament that begins next Wednesday.

For No. 5 Maine and No. 16 UMass, both squads are fighting for key positions in their two-game series in Amherst this weekend.

For the Black Bears, two wins could mean potentially stealing the number one seed from top-ranked Boston College. It would take nothing short but a miracle though as the Eagles have a four-point advantage on the Black Bears heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Umass is also in a battle for seeding but in a different part of the standings compared to Maine. While the Black Bears are guaranteed a bye into the quarterfinals of the tournament, the Minutemen who are currently sixth in the standings do not have the sort of luxury.

Two wins for Minutemen could allow them to make up a three-point gap between them and Providence to steal the last first-round bye from the Friars.

UMass also sits very close to the cut line in the Pairwise rankings for the NCAA tournament and this series will have a major effect on what their status will be going into the next week as well.

Getting into the matchup, Maine got the better of UMass 3-2 in their matchup back on February 2nd in Orono.

The Black Bears have won four straight in the series with the Minutemen last coming out on top a little over two years ago when they swept Maine to end the 2022-23 regular season.

Fortunately for UMass, they have earned a point in each of their last four games coming into this weekend as their series with No. 17 UMass Lowell resulted in a sweep with a shootout win in game one and a 5-3 win in game two.

Maine comes in on an even better hot streak having won nine of their last 10 games. The Black Bears put up four goals in each of their two games against Vermont, sweeping the Catamounts.

Taylor Nakar had a hat trick in game one of the series whereas game two saw more of a collective effort with every goal being scored by a different player.

While the Black Bears may not be one of the best offensive teams this season, their 1.78 goals-against average is third best in the nation only behind Minnesota State and Boston College. Sophomore goaltender Albin Boija has been stout in net for Maine with a .931 save percentage this season.

He will be going up against a UMass offense that has the ninth-best in the country as they score 3.41 goals per game. The Minutemen are led by Cole O’Hara and his 20 goals this season which is ninth best nationally.

He had a goal against Maine in their lone matchup earlier this year.

The battle between UMass’s offense against Maine’s defense will be the headliner for this weekend's series as both teams look to position themselves the best they can in not only the Hockey East but the Frozen Four as well.

Puck drop for game one in Amherst is at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Chase Fisher is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email ctf5198@psu.edu.