Maine men's hockey has enjoyed success as a No. 1 seed in NCAA tournament

Mar. 24—The University of Maine is making its 20th appearance in the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament. This is the eighth time the Black Bears earned a No. 1 seed, although the first six times Maine was a top seed, the tournament featured two six-team regionals. The NCAA expanded the tournament from 12 to 16 teams with four regional sites in 2003.

Being a No. 1 seed has typically been good to the Black Bears. The team has rewarded the selection committee's faith in its ability more often than not. Six of the previous seven times Maine entered the tournament as a top seed, it advanced to the Frozen Four. The one outlier was 1992, when the Black Bears were upset by Michigan State in the regional semifinals.

The Black Bears shook off that loss the following season, earning a No. 1 seed and winning their first national championship with a 5-4 win over Lake Superior State at Milwaukee's Bradley Center.

Maine's last appearance in the tournament as a No. 1 seed was in 2004. That season, the Black Bears advanced to the national championship game in Boston, falling to Denver, 1-0.

Friday's game against Penn State in Allentown, Pennsylvania is the second time the Black Bears face a host school despite being the higher seed. The first was in 2003, when as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional, Maine played No. 3 Michigan at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Wolverines home rink. Michigan won, 2-1, then beat No. 1 Colorado College to advance to the Frozen Four.

This time, while Penn State is the host, its State College campus is 165 miles west of Allentown. Maine coach Ben Barr dismissed any perceived advantage for the Nittany Lions, pointing to last season's national champion Denver. The Pioneers opened the tournament in Springfield, Massachusetts, against host UMass. Denver won in double overtime on its way to the title.

Maine (24-7-6) and Penn State (20-13-4) are scheduled to drop the puck at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Allentown's PPL Center. The winner will face the winner of Friday's earlier game between No. 2 UConn and No. 3 Quinnipiac.

AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON, every opponent is a strong one. In Penn State, Maine will face one of the hottest teams in the nation. Since the start of January, the Nittany Lions are 13-4-4. Penn State enters the NCAA tournament No. 13 in the PairWise rankings, the system used by the NCAA to selected the tournament field. Penn State advanced to the Big Ten semifinals, losing to Ohio State, 4-3 in overtime. The Nittany Lions will take the ice Friday night against Maine after a nearly two week break between games.

Penn State is led by sophomore forward Aiden Fink. One of the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, Fink is second in the nation in points per game, 1.41, and has 23 goals and 29 assists for 52 points in 37 games. Charlie Cerrato (15-22-37), Reese Laubach (15-15-30), Danny Dzhaniyev (12-18-30), and JJ Wiesbusch (12-18-30) are also top scoring threat for Penn State. The Nittany Lions rank seventh in the nation in scoring, averaging 3.51 goals per game, Maine's defense ranks No. 3 in the country, allowing 1.89 goals per game.

Defenseman Simon Mack (3-24-27, plus-18) was named all-Big Ten second team. Goalie Arsenii Sergeev (2.70 GAA, .915 save %) also earned second team all-conference honors.

This will be the first meeting between Maine and Penn State. The teams were scheduled to play a pair of midseason games at Penn State in 2021-22, Barr's first season with the Black Bears, but they were canceled due to illness in the Maine locker room.

HOW CLOSE WAS MAINE to getting sent to the regional in Manchester, New Hampshire, rather than Allentown? According to Tim Troville, the chair of the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey committee and an associate athletic director at Harvard, not very.

In an interview with USCHO.com, Troville said Maine's win in the Hockey East championship game, coupled with Boston College's exit from the conference tournament quarterfinals, made it worthy of discussion. Combine the fact that Maine fans packed TD Garden for the Hockey East semifinals and finals, the committee knew the games at Manchester's SNHU Arena would almost certainly be sellouts if Maine was included in the field.

In the end, the committee determined that switching Maine and Boston College, the top overall seed, and sending the Eagles to Allentown would be an unfair move and sent BC to Manchester, the site closest to its campus.

"We considered everything and some things more briefly than others," Troville said to USCHO.com. "For us, having Maine in Allentown was the best solution."

As of 10:30 a.m. Monday, approximately 135 tickets were available for Friday's game between Maine and Penn State on Ticketmaster's web site, ranging in price from $50 to %110. The games in Manchester were close to sold out, with limited seats available.

THE FROZEN FOUR is set for April 10-12 in St. Louis, Missouri. This is the third time St. Louis has hosted the Frozen Four, and first since 2007.

The last time the championship was held in St. Louis, Maine was a participant. The Black Bears fell to eventual national champion Michigan State in the semifinals.

Three of the four Frozen Four participants that season: Michigan State, Boston College, and Maine, earned No. 1 seeds this season. The fourth Frozen Four team from that season 18 years ago, North Dakota, failed to qualify for this season's tournament.

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