Maine is hitting its stride under coach Barr
For Ben Barr, the third time has been the charm.
Now in his third season as coach of Maine, Barr has the 12-3-1 Black Bears in the top spot in the PairWise rankings after winning the Ledyard Classic championship at Dartmouth last weekend.
Barr has been through this before. In 2014, he reached the NCAA Tournament in his third year as an assistant coach on Nate Leaman’s Providence squad. He took a similar path at UMass, which reached the national title game in his third season as an assistant to Greg Carvel. The pattern is not a coincidence.
“It takes, like, three to five years to set a culture in place, and you try to speed that up as fast as you can, but there isn’t a way to speed that up,” said Barr. “It’s just doing the same thing over and over and over again until it becomes part of your makeup as a program. And that takes time. If you’re able to do it impactfully, the third year is when you see a jump.
“That doesn’t guarantee you’re going to win, but it’s going to get you in the ballgame at least. So maybe we’re in the ballgame today. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be in the ballgame next week, but the culture is there, which is the most important piece.”
Having the right players helps, and a look at the Hockey East monthly awards for December is an indication that Maine has the talent. Josh Nadeau was named Player of the Month after recording 6 goals and 6 assists as the Black Bears went 6-0. Younger brother Bradly Nadeau posted a 5-6—11 line to take Rookie of the Month honors, while sophomore defenseman Brandon Chabrier recorded at least 1 point in five of the six games and was named Defender of the Month after registering 2 goals and 8 assists.
Maine will host Colgate for a pair of games this weekend in its last two nonconference games before facing Hockey East competition in the final 16.
Ripple effect
Czechia’s upset of Canada in the World Junior Championship is having quite an impact on the only Hockey East matchup this weekend, when UConn travels to UMass Friday night. Carvel thought he might have starting goalie Michael Hrabal back for the game, but Hrabal —sporting his UMass goalie helmet throughout the tournament — made 28 saves to help Czechia to a 3-2 win in the quarterfinals and into the medal round.
Canada’s loss meant that UConn forward Matthew Wood, who had two goals and two assists in five games, was on a plane back from Sweden Wednesday, and could play for the Huskies Friday night.
“Hip hip hooray for Czechia,” Carvel deadpanned.
UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh was unsure whether Wood would be ready to play right away.
“We’ll see. Through my experience with this, every kid is different,” said Cavanaugh. “It’s certainly easier when the games are in North America. It’s such a grueling and intense tournament, it’s not an easy transition.”
UMass also has been without freshman Dans Locmelis. The forward scored twice for Latvia in a 7-2 loss to the US in the quarterfinals. Hrabal and Czechia will play for the bronze Friday after losing to Sweden, 5-2, Thursday.
“It’s great for those two kids,” said Carvel. “I’m not surprised. They’re awesome kids. We’re very fortunate to have them. It’s great experience for them. Selfishly, I wish we had them last weekend and this weekend, but we won’t. That’s the small price you pay to have really good players on your team.”
Harvard gets busy
Harvard and UMass Lowell are headed to Tempe, Ariz., for the Desert Hockey Classic at Mullett Arena, home to Arizona State as well as the Arizona Coyotes. Lowell opens the tournament Friday against Omaha, after which the Crimson will face the host Sun Devils. It will mark four games in eight days for Harvard. After going four weeks in between games, the Crimson returned to the ice for a pair of games last weekend, losing on the road to Princeton and UConn. Coach Ted Donato believes the more difficult part of this stretch is behind his squad. “I think it’s probably tougher to come back after not playing, and then play back-to-back games,” said Donato. “I think our guys in general get excited to take a trip to someplace they haven’t played before and play in an NHL arena against different teams they haven’t seen.” . . . Rounding out the top four behind Maine in the PairWise are Boston University, Quinnipiac, and Boston College. Both BC and BU are idle this week as they wait to get their reinforcements back from the World Juniors, save for BC’s exhibition with Simon Fraser Saturday night. The defending national champion Bobcats will be at Northeastern Saturday at 5 p.m.