The Central Maine Community College men’s hockey team made a few scheduling adjustments for the 2023-24 season.

The Mustangs lost in the Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association’s Colonial Conference championship game last season.

They had a 17-2-1 record in 2022-23, but that wasn’t enough to earn an invite to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division III National Tournament. (The ACHA is the governing body for college club hockey in the United States and has three divisions in men’s hockey.)

“We have a national (coaches) meeting that happens every year, so I went down to Florida to attend the national meeting,” CMCC coach Jordy Knoren said. “One of the topics was to try to change the rules to matter what the conference winner could go to nationals. The Michigan teams were like, ‘Nope, conference winners and at least to be seeded in the Top 25.'”

The Mustangs increased their strength of schedule, and this season met the criteria, going 18-5-1 overall (13-4-1 NECHA) and defeating Worcester Polytechnic Institute 7-1 to win the NECHA Colonial Conference championship on Feb. 18. CMCC also finished 12th in the rankings to earn spot in the ACHA Division III National Tournament, which begins Thursday in St. Louis, Missouri.

The biggest change to the Mustangs’ schedule was a trip to Michigan from Jan. 10-14 to face some of the top teams in the ACHA Division III.

Central Maine took buses to Michigan, and the long drive allowed the team to bond.

“That was a super fun one because we saw what we could do against some high-ranked teams,” CMCC first-year forward Evan Knowlton said. “At the same time, we spent a week together as a team — which is something I can’t say we have done at all this season. It was a great team bonding experience.”

The Mustangs went 3-1 on the trip, including wins against Calvin University and Michigan State, two top-10 teams in ACHA Division III.

“We didn’t have the best first half,” third-year defenseman Nate Marcotte said. “We dropped a game to Dartmouth in overtime, Colby as well, and we ended up losing our other two games to them in regulation. Going to Michigan, we knew how important that trip was, and the play was going to set the tone for the rest of the season.”

Central Maine rode the momentum the rest of the season, going 5-1-1 after the trip, including the Colonial Conference tournament.

The conference championship and strength of schedule earned the Mustangs a berth to nationals.

The Mustangs open pool play on Thursday (12:15 p.m.) against Air Force, then face the University of Missouri on Friday (9:15 p.m.), and finish against Michigan State on Saturday (3:15 p.m.). The top team in the pool will advance the semifinals on Monday (11:15 a.m. or 2:15 p.m.) to face off against one of the other three pool winners.

The national championship game is on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Knowlton was a member of Lewiston High School’s 2020 Class A state championship team and played for the Twin City Thunder’s USPHL Premier League team last season. He said the competition during the regular season is similar to what he faced in high school and junior hockey, but he expects it to be a higher caliber at the national tournament.

“The teams in Michigan and the teams we are going to play at nationals are the higher level teams — we are going to need to step up to that,” Knowlton said. “Those teams do have a ton of junior players, like even high-level junior players like in the NAHL and NCDC — stuff like that. They have a lot of experience, and we will need to adapt to that.”

GROWTH OF PROGRAM

Knoren has seen the Central Maine Community College men’s hockey team grow since nearly the beginning, when the school announced the revival of the program for the 2016-17 season after being dormant for 18 years.

The Heerlan, Netherlands, native was the first recruit for the team after three years of junior hockey, including one season with the Maine Moose junior team in the old Northern States Hockey League in 2013-14 and two seasons in the NA3EHL with the Cape Cod Islanders (2014-15) and the Maine Wild (2015-16).

Knoren was named CMCC’s 2019 Male Athlete of the Year. He was an assistant coach for the team in 2019-20, then was named the head coach for the 2021-22 season.

Knoren said the main thing that took the Mustangs to new heights was getting into NECHA’s Colonial Conference with full membership after a season with probationary status in 2020.

“The first year, when you are building the program and still trying to figure out how the league works,” Knoren said. “There’s a lot of pieces — you are trying to get the recruiting started and what type of hockey you want to play. The first three or four years were about finding it, and up to that point, we weren’t eligible for the playoffs because we weren’t a full-time member of (a conference). When I took the program over, we weren’t quite (full-time). When we became a full-time member, I used that as, ‘Hey, now we are playing for something.'”

Knoren, who now lives in Auburn, is the CMCC’s Strength and Conditioning coordinator in addition to his hockey coaching duties.

Marcotte, who graduated from Oak Hill in 2020 and played for the Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester co-op, said he’s happy with what the hockey team has become since he joined the team in 2021-22 following a season playing for the Maine Moose 18U team.

“Being there from the start, it was a tough first year. The second year got better — we lost in the championship game — and my third year, we finished it off (while) making a big run at nationals,” Marcotte said. “I have had a lot of success growing up in youth and travel hockey, but this one probably feels the best, knowing that we set a culture at this school, and hopefully, it sticks around for a long time.”

Knowlton, who graduated from Lewiston in 2022, said he wasn’t looking at CMCC as an option to play hockey college during his senior year until a high school teammate suggested he check it out.

“I was just going to play juniors, initially, but one of my friends who also played for my Lewiston team, he was playing for CM,” Knowlton said. “He was like, ‘You should come to CM, it’s really fun — the coach is great. I kind of looked into it, went to a few practices, and ended up loving it.”

RIVALS TO TEAMMATES

Central Maine CC has a lot of Maine talent, especially from Lewiston-Auburn and the surrounding areas, with 28 of the 31 players calling the Pine Tree State home.

Among those are three former Lewiston standouts on the team (Knowlton, Luke Pomerleau and Michael Belleau), three Edward Little alumni (Jack Keefe, Brody Keefe and Gage Ducharme), three players who played for Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester (Marcotte, Blake Springer and Jack Springer) and two, James Sicurella and Jon Rioux, from Winthrop High School.

Knowlton, Belleau, Matt Poirier (Gardiner) and Sebastian Couturier (South Portland) all suited up for the Twin City Thunder’s Tier III Premier team.

“We have been lucky to find really good local players,” Knoren said. “They are really good hockey players, obviously, skill-wise, but they are great people, great attitudes. That has driven our program forward.”

Knowlton and Marcotte said most of the team also played for either the Maine Gladiators or the Maine Moose youth hockey organizations.

“I have known most of my teammates my whole life,” Knowlton, who played for the Gladiators, said. “Me and Michael, we have played against Gabe (Poirier), Cam Knowles, we played them when they played for the Moose back in squirts and bantams. We had a rivalry there and we known them for a long time.

“The Edward Little kids, I have been friends with them a long time — I have been playing with them on the same Gladiator teams when we were younger.”

Marcotte said playing for CMCC has been a neat full-circle moment for the players.

“It’s a really fun dynamic,” Marcotte said. “A lot of us played on the Moose travel teams growing up, and a good portion of the other half played for the Gladiators — those are probably the two biggest rivals in youth hockey. Coming together at the end to finish off our playing careers is pretty cool.

“We made a really competitive team out of it and a really tight-knit group.”

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