BOSTON — The population of Maine is listed at about a million and a half.
At least half of them were at TD Garden on Friday night.
Or at least that’s what it sounded like, as a crowd of 17,605 at TD Garden — heavily dominated by Maine hockey fans from Fort Kent to Kittery — watched their favorite team beat Connecticut 5-2 and win the Hockey East tournament for the first time in more than two decades.
“Greatest fans in college hockey, without a doubt,” said Maine senior defenseman David Breazeale, who had two assists on the night. “It felt like a home game out there. (It’s) an incredible feeling to have so much support from the whole state behind us. It’s amazing. (We) couldn’t do it without them.”
Friday’s win marked the sixth conference tournament title and first since 2004 for No. 2 Maine (24-7-6, 16-5-6 Hockey East), which became the first non-Massachusetts school to lift the Lamoriello Trophy since then. No. 4 UConn (22-11-4, 14-9-4) was making only its second league championship-game appearance and first since losing 2-1 in overtime to Massachusetts in 2022. The Huskies remain in search of their first Hockey East tournament title.
“Happy for the guys in the room, happy for the school, happy for the state of Maine,” fourth-year Black Bears coach Ben Barr said. “I didn’t know, coming into this job, the effect our community and this state has on our program. You saw it up there tonight. It felt like everybody in here was from Maine or had a Maine jersey on. (It’s) incredible what that does for us.”
Both teams were assured a spot in the NCAA tournament before Friday’s title game, thanks to their position in the PairWise. Maine, which broke a 12-year NCAA drought with last year’s appearance, will be in the NCAA tournament for the 19th time. This will be UConn’s first-ever berth.
“Maine jumped us early,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “We wanted to score first to kind of take the crowd out of the game. That wasn’t the case.”
Showing no ill effects after a double-overtime semifinal win over Northeastern the previous night that ended near the stroke of midnight, Maine staked itself to a 2-0 lead after one period.
Lynden Breen scored the first goal of the night, giving Maine a 1-0 lead when he went 5-hole on UConn goalie Tyler Muszelik (19 saves) at 12:47. On a 2-on-1 with linemate Owen Fowler to his left, Breen decided to take it himself and snapped the puck between Muszelik’s pads to put Maine on the board.
Josh Nadeau expanded Maine’s lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 16:29. Nadeau scooped up a clear by goalie Albin Boija deep in the Black Bears’ end and took the puck across two zones, shedding defenders along the way, before firing it past Muszelik stick side for the score. It was the only power play of the night.
“I knew he could do it,” said Boija, who was named to the all-tournament team and was also named tournament MVP. “There was kind of an opening and he had good speed. He worked his magic.”
Boija made 27 saves Friday and 87 combined in three tournament games. His assist Friday was his second career assist and first since assisting Harrison Scott in a 2-1 loss at Vermont on March 1, 2024.
Scott made it 3-0 late in the second with his team-leading 18th goal of the season when, in the thick of a scrum in front of the crease, he swatted a loose puck out of the air baseball-style and into the net.
UConn, in no mood to be blown out by a team it had beaten twice during the regular season, got on the board at 3:11 of the final frame when Tabor Heaslip banged a loose puck past Maine goalie Albin Boija to cut the Black Bears’ lead to 3-1.
Taylor Makar shut the door on the Huskies at 9:21 of the third. Makar picked up the puck near the boards at the UConn blue line, skated in and found the back of the net to make it 4-1.
UConn’s slim chance of a comeback took a big hit when an apparent goal by Filip Sitar midway through the period — which would have cut Maine’s lead to 4-2 — was disqualified after video review due to a missed offside call. The Huskies got that goal back on Heaslip’s second of the night with 5:19 remaining.
Muszelik was pulled for an extra skater with about 2:38 remaining, but the Black Bears took advantage with an empty-net goal by Makar at 19:35.
