The University of Maine men’s hockey team will make its lone appearance in Portland this season when it hosts No. 15 UMass Lowell on Saturday for a Hockey East game at Cross Insurance Arena.
Game time is 5 p.m. Tickets starting at $34 are available through the Cross Insurance Arena website.
Maine is 1-9-2 overall, 1-6-1 in Hockey East, and is coming off a 2-2 tie at Boston College, which included Maine winning the shootout, 2-1. Four of Maine’s losses under first-year head coach Ben Barr have been by one goal.
UMass Lowell is 7-2-2 overall, 5-1-0 in Hockey East. The River Hawks are allowing just 1.64 goals per game and have been even stingier in Hockey East play, with a 1.00 goals-against average and two shutouts. Lowell senior goalie Owen Savory (6-1-1) ranks second in the nation in goals-against average (1.24) and save percentage (.947). Junior forward Andre Lee leads the River Hawks in goals (eight) and points (10).
Lowell had a nine-game unbeaten streak snapped in its most recent game, a 2-1 loss at Connecticut on Sunday.
Maine has struggled to score, averaging 2.0 goals per game. The Black Bears’ power-play is 56th among the 59 NCAA Division I programs with an 8.3 percent success rate (three goals, 36 chances). Maine’s leading scorers are defensemen Jakub Sirota and David Breazeale, both with seven points. Sirota, a senior from the Czech Republic, has three goals and four assists. Breazeale, a 6-foot-4 freshman from Jenison, Michigan, leads the team with six assists. His lone goal was the winner in Maine’s 6-5 overtime victory against Merrimack, Nov. 12.
Sophomore Donavan Villeneuve-Houle of Montreal and senior Grant Hebert, a transfer from Robert Morris, lead Maine with four goals each. Villeneuve-Houle had a goal in regulation in the 2-2 tie at Boston College and another in the shootout.
Maine played two games against Lowell in the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season, losing back-to-back nights at Lowell, 5-3 and 9-5.
Maine last played at Cross Insurance Arena on Jan. 4, 2020, beating Nebraska-Omaha, 3-2.
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