The Maryland Black Bears entered 2024 in second place in the East Division with 49 points. Maryland’s first game of the new year was against the team in first place in the division with 52 points, the Maine Nordiques. In a hard-fought contest between the East Division’s top two teams, the Black Bears came out with a 4-2 win to get the team one point out of first place.

The Nordiques got the scoring started with 13.5 seconds to go in the first period when forward Shane Kozlina took the puck on a two-on-one rush, cut to the slot, and let a wrist shot go to the far side past the blocker side of Maryland goalie Owen Lepak to make it 1-0. The Black Bears responded with a two goal second period. Maryland forward Luke Janus got things started for the Black Bears, intercepting a pass in on the far side of the offensive zone, moving towards the far circle, and ripping a shot past the glove side of Maine goalie Thomas Heaney to make it 1-1. Maryland took the lead with 1:16 on the power play, when forward Jesse Horacek received a pass from defenseman Luke Amell and one-timed the puck through a screen low left side and in for a 2-1 lead.

Black Bears’ forward Kareem El-Bashir continued the scoring in the third period, batting a bouncing puck in the slot out of mid-air and past Heaney for a 3-1 lead. Maryland put the game away when forward Magnus Gadowsky took a slap shot on net and had the rebound pop out to defenseman Dylan Gordan in the slot, who slid it past Heaney while falling down for a 4-1 lead. The Nordiques scored one more goal with forward Cole Hipkin chipping home a rebound with 3.8 seconds to go to make the final score 4-2. Lepak made 20 saves in the winning effort.

With the win, Maryland sits one point back of Maine for first place in the East Division. The two teams rematch with first place on the line on Saturday at Piney Orchard Ice Arena with puck drop slated for 7:30 p.m. ET. All games can be streamed on NAHLTV.