How does Maine men’s hockey rank to start the season?

['Travis Lazarczyk', 'More Travis Lazarczyk', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Centralmaine.com 2025-09-22 00:00:00

Goalie Albin Boija helped the University of Maine men’s hockey team win the Hockey East Conference championship last season. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)Maine Trust for Local News sports columnist Travis Lazarczyk is a voter in the U.S. College Hockey Online men’s poll. After an exhibition game against New Hampshire on Oct. 3 at Bowdoin College, Maine opens the regular season at home Oct. 10 against Holy Cross. Western Michigan was picked as the top team in the National College Hockey Conference preseason poll, receiving 19 of the 30 first-place votes. The top prospect in the 2026 NHL draft class, McKenna had 41 goals and 88 assists in 56 regular-season games for the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League.