Can the Black Bears skate past coaching turmoil and finish high in conference?
Heading into 2026-27, the University of Maine Black Bears find themselves in an unfavorable position: on just the wrong side of the middle of the conference and with a big question mark at perhaps the most important position on the team: the coaching bench.
The Black Bears are skating their first season since 2021-22 without head coach Molly Engstrom, who will be moving to PWHL Detroit and serving as an assistant coach. Alex Gettens was announced as the new head coach on July 20. Gettens brings many years of collegiate experience as an assistant coach, and this will be his first as a head coach at the college level.
On the ice, Maine has plenty of areas of improvement to target. Last season, Maine scored the fourth-fewest goals per game on average across the conference with 1.97. The total goals statistic had the same result: their 71 goals were ahead of only Boston University, Providence and Merrimack.
Maine also needs to shore up defensively. They allowed the fourth-highest amount of goals across their 36 games and had the third-worst penalty kill percentage, with an 80.51% success rate. Given that the Black Bears also had the fourth-most penalties last season, it would seem that staying out of the penalty box will be a necessity for them.
On the bright side, Maine had ten players in the conference’s top 100 highest scorers last season, with three of those scorers appearing in the top 50, and they’ve retained eight of them.
Maine was picked to finish eighth in the pre-season poll, tallying 33 points.
Where last season ended…
Maine finished with a 13-19-4 record overall and especially struggled in conference, finishing with a 8-12-4 result. They lost 6-1 to eventual tournament winner UConn in the quarterfinal of the Hockey East playoffs.
Players to watch…
Last season, the University of Maine had two of the conference’s top 10 highest-scoring freshmen: forwards Isabelle Michaud (11 goals and eight assists in 36 games) and Mackenzie Podewell (six goals and 10 assists in 31 games).
New arrivals..
The Black Bears are welcoming five freshmen to Orono this season: three forwards, one defender and one goaltender.
Maine will also be adding one transfer to their roster. Rising junior forward Charlotte Wensley (eight goals and seven assists in 33 games last season) is joining the Black Bears from RPI.
Into the portal…
Rising junior forward Frederikke Foss (three points across 39 games played in two seasons) left the NCAA to play at the University of New Brunswick.
As of writing on Sept. 25, rising sophomore goaltender Laurie Deguire (no games played in her freshman season) still appears to be in the transfer portal and is not listed on Maine’s roster for this season.
A peek into the schedule…
Maine started its season welcoming No. 6 Quinnipiac to Alfond Arena for a weekend series on Sep. 25 and 26, losing both games. They continue their homestand with a series against St. Lawrence the following weekend before heading to Minnesota for matchups against No. 3 Minnesota and Bemidji State on Oct. 9 and 10, respectively. They’ll finish their October road trip at RPI for a series on Oct. 16 and 17. The rest of the month of October will be played at home: the Black Bears will play their first conference series against Providence on Oct. 30 and 31.
The rest of the first half of the season is all Hockey East play. Maine will play a series at Boston University on Nov. 6 and 7 and then will return home for a series against Holy Cross on Nov. 13 and 14. The following week, Maine will face tough competition, facing off against Northeastern on Nov. 19 and 20 on the road. A series against New Hampshire will wrap up the Black Bears’ first half of the season on Dec. 4 and 5.
2027 will be rung in for Maine on the road against Dartmouth, for the last non-conference matchup of the season. For that first block of conference play to end the season, the Black Bears head down to Storrs for a series against UConn on Jan. 8 and 9. Maine will play series against Vermont and Merrimack on the third and fourth weekends of the new year before holding down Alfond against Boston College on Jan. 29 and 30.
The last month of the regular season will be a difficult one for the Black Bears as they play six games against six different teams. They will face UConn, Vermont, Holy Cross, Providence and Northeastern before closing out the regular season at home against Merrimack on Feb. 20.
