Hockey East Roundup: Dec. 14, 2024 | Maine/Merrimack

The last Hockey East recap of the year is here! And yes I know there was only one game, but Merrimack and Maine had an entertaining faceoff against one another to celebrate Maine State Pride Day on Saturday, Dec. 14. And when I say entertaining, I mean a nailbiter for both of these squads. Let’s jump into it. 

The fun kick-started just two minutes into regulation, when Maine’s Adriana van de Leest buried her second goal of the season on a beautiful shot from right in front. After the puck was kept in at the blue line by Kendall Sundby, the freshman defender managed a spin-o-rama move to push the puck back along the boards. 

Swooping it off the boards was Lily Fetch, and the sophomore quickly connected with Alyssa Wruble, who was bearing down on the Merrimack crease. Wruble opted for the feed across to van de Leest, and the senior wasted no time finding the back of the net. 

Nifty passing and open space were the name of the game on this play, and it paid off for the Black Bears in the form of a 1-0 lead. 

Low event hockey is how I would describe the rest of the period between these two teams, and honestly the rest of the game too. Which was slightly shocking considering how productive the Black Bears have been on the shot counter all season, and how many both sides have been giving up on average thus far. 

In that opening frame, it was mainly Merrimack generating the chances. In fact, the Black Bears had just three shots on goal in the remainder of the first 20 minutes after scoring on their first SOG of the game. Maine did try to get other chances off throughout the first, but the majority either went wide or were blocked in front by the Warriors. Merrimack on the opposite side put 10 shots on freshman Madisyn Ryan’s net but were stonewalled by the netminder. 

It was the first start of her career for Ryan, who saw her first NCAA action against Wisconsin on Nov. 29. And the rookie played very well. She made 22 saves en route to her first win, and had a clean sheet heading into the third period to boot. 

The second provided a little more back and forth between the two sides, with Maine notching six SOG and Merrimack matching that number. The majority of the Black Bears chances came while they were on the power play – the only two penalty calls throughout the contest came against Merrimack in that middle frame. 

First was Natalie Nemes, who received a hooking penalty 6:12 into the period. The Black Bears generated four chances on the advantage, but only one got past the Warriors in front for a SOG that was then saved by Calli Hogarth. 

The second advantage chance for Maine was similar, after Hayley Chang took a tripping penalty exactly three minutes after the Nemes penalty expired. Maine was able to win the first faceoff, but it took over a minute for the team to get any real chances toward Hogarth’s cage. Sundby’s chance went wide, before a second attempt was blocked by Michaela Littlewood in front. Raegan Wurm had one of her three shots on goal in the contest on the power play, but Hogarth was able to turn it away to keep the score 1-0. 

It’s no secret that Maine’s power play has struggled this season – similarly to how the team has struggled overall over the first half of 2024-25. The Black Bears have raised their conversion rate to 13.5% over the last few weeks however, and are no longer last in Hockey East, where they had been for a large portion of the last month or so. 

They’ve also struggled to stay out of the box throughout the course of the season, but those struggles were not seen against Merrimack. For the first time this year the Black Bears took no penalties throughout 60 minutes. Which is crucial against Merrimack and their 23.3% conversion rate power play, especially considering the Maine PK has also had some tough games over the last few weeks and is now operating at 79.7% success rate. 

Third period action is when things got really interesting, especially in the last 60 seconds of the game. 

Just 21 seconds into the frame, Black Bear forward Stephanie Jacob put a shot off the post that rebounded directly onto her stick once more. The freshman then fired another shot off, which this time slid through the five-hole of a discombobulated Hogarth and into the back of the net. It was the third goal of the season for Jacob, and the first since Oct. 25. 

Merrimack didn’t waste much time after that goal, as 21 seconds later another freshman found the back of the cage. This time Abby Poitras – who had an impressive four blocks in the game as well – was the one on the scoresheet, after the defender skated in and rifled the puck past Ryan for her third goal of the season. 

From there, the Warriors had a lot of momentum, as they tried to close the gap completely to tie the game. Merrimack in total generated 16 chances after scoring their first goal to Maine’s 10. A lot of those were turned away by the Black Bears, who by the end of the game had a combined 21 blocks altogether. 

One shot they weren’t able to stop however, was a wrister from Rachel Bjorgan. The forward skated down Broadway after the Warriors pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker and threaded the puck behind Ryan to tie the game. 

The kicker? There was just 57.4 seconds remaining in regulation. 

That didn’t stop Maine, though. 

Twenty six point two seconds after the Bjorgan game-tying goal, late game heroics from none other than Alyssa Wruble lifted Maine to the win. The senior has long been a key fixture for the Black Bears, including this season as an assistant captain and especially as their leading scorer. 

Once again, it was the unit alongside van de Leest and Fetch that got things going. Wruble corralled the backhanded pass from van de Leest on the two-on-one chance, took advantage of the body in the crease, and put the puck into the top of the goal to secure the 3-2 lead. And the 3-2 win. With 31.2 seconds remaining. 

When you put it all together, it definitely wasn’t the prettiest performance for Maine: They were outshot 24-16, won just 15 of 41 faceoffs, and once again failed to find the back of the net on two power play chances. 

However – they did what they needed to do and got the win. Coming into the game the Black Bears were 3-16-0, and were in danger of going into the semester break with 10 losses in their last 11 games. Instead, they capitalized on a last minute bullet and added three Hockey East points to put them in a tie for sixth alongside Vermont with 14 total points. 

Merrimack, on the other hand, sits in last place in the conference with just nine points. They do, however, have more wins than the Black Bears, with an overall record of 6-12-1. Altogether they had a solid semester, and are just two points away from eighth place in the conference with plenty of conference games remaining. 

These two teams will see each other again on the second to last weekend of the year, Feb. 14 and 15 in North Andover. And if this past weekend was any indication, there will be a lot of excitement when these squads hit the ice again. I’ll definitely have my eye on it, and you probably should too. 

Next Hockey East Games: 

Monday, Dec. 30th: 

New Hampshire vs. Dartmouth (ECAC) – 6 PM 

Friday, Jan. 3rd 2025: 

Boston University at Holy Cross – 6 PM 

Maine at New Hampshire – 6 PM 

Merrimack at Northeastern – 6 PM 

Providence at Vermont – 6 PM 

UConn at Boston College – 6 PM 

Saturday, Jan. 4th: 

Providence at Merrimack – 6 PM 

Holy Cross at Northeastern – 7 PM

Sunday, Jan. 5th: 

Maine at Boston College – 2 PM 

Vermont at UConn – 3 PM 

Tuesday, Jan. 7th:

New Hampshire at Boston College – 6 PM 

Northeastern vs. Yale (ECAC) – 6 PM