The 2021–22 Maine Black Bears Men's ice hockey season was the 47th season of play for the program, the 45th season competing at the Division I level, and the 38th season in the Hockey East conference. The Black Bears represented the University of Maine and played their home games at Alfond Arena, and were coached by Ben Barr, in his 1st season as head coach.
Season With the still recovering from the sudden death of the previous head coach, Red Gendron, Maine struggled through the early part of the season. Despite returning almost off the players from the previous season, the offense was unable to coalesce and proved to be a hindrance for the Black Bears' success. Maine was shutout seven times during the season and finished as one of the lowest goal for in the nation. Compounding their problems was a less-than-stellar performance in goal. Victor Östman and Matthew Thiessen split the starting job but both were fairly inconsistent.
Maine's start doomed their postseason hopes and by mid-December the Black Bears had just 1 win in 16 games. They played better in the second half, Nearly quadrupling their win total, and took games from Massachusetts and Boston University, both ranked teams. Unfortunately, Maine could never put together a string of good play and ended the year with the worst record in Hockey East. In their only playoff match, the Bears were soundly beaten by Merrimack. While the overall results were lackluster, the team did show improvement as the year went on.
Departures Dominic Dockery Defenseman Left mid-season (signed with Wheeling Nailers) Kabore Dunn Defenseman Returned to juniors (transferred to Lindenwood) J. D. Greenway Defenseman Graduation (signed with Providence Bruins) Levi Kleiboer Defenseman Transferred to Mount Royal Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi Defenseman Graduation (signed with Oulun Kärpät) Eduards Tralmaks Forward Graduation (signed with Providence Bruins)
Recruiting David Breazeale Defenseman 21 Jenison, MI Dominic Dockery Defenseman 24 Lockport, NY; graduate transfer from Merrimack Matt Fawcett Forward 22 Lincoln, RI; transfer from Quinnipiac Tim Gould Defenseman 21 Moncton, NB Grant Hebert Forward 24 St. Andrew's West, ON; transfer from Robert Morris Nolan Renwick Forward 20 Milestone, SK
Roster As of August 19, 2021.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics C 33 9 16 25 10 C 32 10 9 19 44 C 29 7 9 16 35 D 33 2 14 16 8 F 32 9 6 15 6 D 26 4 10 14 10 LW 30 5 8 13 23 RW 28 4 8 12 8 C/RW 28 6 5 11 21 RW 33 4 7 11 14 F 20 5 2 7 8 D 30 4 3 7 14 F 30 0 6 6 16 D 22 1 3 4 30 D 10 0 4 4 4 F 20 0 4 4 2 RW 23 2 1 3 6 F 23 0 3 3 4 D 33 0 3 3 8 RW 7 1 1 2 0 D 11 0 2 2 0 G 21 0 2 2 0 D 28 0 2 2 20 C 23 1 0 1 17 D 17 0 1 1 0 D 2 0 0 0 0 G 3 0 0 0 0 D 4 0 0 0 0 G 12 0 0 0 0 LW/RW 14 0 0 0 8 Total 74 129 203 316
Goaltending statistics 12 656 1 8 3 34 269 0 .888 3.11 21 1234 5 14 1 68 610 0 .900 3.31 2 105 1 0 0 6 44 0 .880 3.41 Empty Net - 20 - - - 3 - - - - Total 33 2015 7 22 4 111 923 0 .893 3.30
Rankings
PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NR USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
Awards and honors David Breazeale Hockey East Rookie Team
References