We could hose down and freeze a parking lot in Madawaska, surround it with portable bleachers, invite the University of Maine men’s hockey team to play on it, and every seat would sell out quicker than you could plug the fastest route to Madawaska into your GPS.
Now in the fifth season of Ben Barr’s tenure as head coach, the Black Bears are the state’s team again. Every game at Alfond Arena this season is sold out. The annual game at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena, on Dec. 10 against UMass Lowell, isn’t quite sold out yet, but as of Thursday morning, only tickets in the corners and upper reaches of the arena are available.
And Friday night’s exhibition game against the University of New Hampshire at Bowdoin College’s Watson Arena? The 1,900 available seats sold out in minutes.
It’s a lesson the team’s veterans teach the newcomers. It’s doesn’t say Black Bears across the front of their sweater. It reads Maine in that blue, familiar cursive, and they’re playing for more than a few square miles in Orono.
“It’s something the returners have kind of preached to the new guys, how much outreach we have here in the state of Maine,” said Thomas Freel, a senior who is one of the team captains. “When we heard how quickly tickets sold out and how popular this game down at Bowdoin is going to be, it was awesome to see.”
We saw it at Boston’s TD Garden last season during the Hockey East semifinals and championship game, when a large portion of the 17,605 there for Maine’s 5-2 win over UConn for its first conference title in 21 years knew all the words to the Maine Stein Song. Mike Cavanaugh, UConn’s coach, said the crowd had an Alfond Arena vibe.
When Maine played in the NCAA tournament each of the last two seasons, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, last March and Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2024, the fans traveled, packing arenas hundreds of miles from home. A short trip to Brunswick or Portland is nothing.
“Bowdoin’s got a rich history, and we went to Colby a couple years ago. It’s neat where you go to those games and play your rival. It’s an exhibition, but obviously it still means something to both teams,” Barr said. “It’s cool to do something like that in the state of Maine.”
This game came together quickly and easily. Once Barr and UNH coach Mike Souza agreed to play a preseason game (technically, it’s a scrimmage), the question became where to play it? Two years ago, the rivals met at Colby College in Waterville.
Seth Woodcock, Maine’s associate athletic director for development and capital planning, called Bowdoin men’s hockey coach Ben Guite, a Maine alum and former Black Bear assistant coach. Guite connected Woodcock with Kevin Loney, Bowdoin’s associate director of athletics for facilities and event management.
Of course you can play here, Loney said. Bowdoin is not charging UMaine for the rink. When the Black Bears and Wildcats played at Colby’s Kelley Rink in 2023, proceeds from the game went to the Alfond Community Center in Waterville. There’s no charitable component to Friday’s game, although groups who organize hockey for players with special needs — Unified Maine Special Hockey, Maine Blind Bears, Spaulding Rehab Center of Boston, and UNH Northeast Passage — will be honored.
“There’s not a ton of rinks we can play at, but it’s fun for us to bring the program around the state,” Woodcock said.
Woodcock is right. The number of hockey arenas in the state that can hold any sort of crowd is slim. One the Black Bears should look at is the Colisee in Lewiston. Under new ownership, that historic rink would surely welcome a visit from the state’s team to Maine’s hockey capital city.
“What we do out there has a bigger reach than us,” Freel said.
For now, the Black Bears are taking over the home of the Polar Bears for one night.
