There’s still a lot of hockey left to play in the 2025-2026 North American Hockey League season. But the Maryland Black Bears have put the league on notice with 26 games left to play, accumulating a 28-3-3 record for a league-leading 59 points. The Black Bears lead the East Division by 16 points, along with an NAHL-best 147 goals for and a 14-1-1 record at home. Maryland hopes to continue the home success in 2026, and their first opponents of the new year will be sure to test that. The Rochester Jr. Americans will come into this weekend’s contest at third place in the East Division with a 21-10-0 record and 42 points.

Maryland not only rides a five game point streak heading into Friday’s contest, but an impressive 14 game point streak, going 13-0-1 in that span. This past weekend, the Black Bears added on to their success in a pair of overtime wins against the Elmira Aviators. Game one saw forward Ryan Franks score a first period hat trick to give Maryland an early 3-0 lead. However, Elmira would fight back and tie the game midway through the second period. The game would go into overtime, where forward Harrison Smith would break the Maryland Black Bears single season points record (60) and career points (112) with an overtime goal to win the game 4-3. Goaltender Ryan Denes made 29 saves in the win. Game two would see Franks score yet again for Maryland, along with forward Tanner Duncan, both responding to Elmira second period goals to see the score 2-2 after two periods. Despite a late power play goal by Smith to give the Black Bears a 3-2 lead, Elmira would tie the game at 3-3 in the final minute to force overtime. There, Smith would play hero yet again, winning the game 4-3 with his second overtime goal of the weekend. Goaltender Dom Gatto turned aside 21 shots in the winning effort. 

The Rochester Jr. Americans are no strangers to success this season. Last year’s East Division representative in the Robertson Cup semi-final is currently riding a seven game win streak where they are outscoring their opponents 31-17. Overall, Rochester has an 8-2-0 record over their last ten games. Last weekend, the Jr. Americans secured a sweep over the Danbury Hat Tricks. Game one had five different players record a goal for Rochester in a dominant 5-0 win. Defenseman Sam Schulte struck midway through the first period to make the score 1-0. This was followed by first period goals from forwards Konnor Powell and Colin Dustin for a 3-0 lead after one period. Forwards Owen King and Corson Maguire tallied in the third for a 5-0 final score. Schulte scored his second goal of the weekend to start game two which sparked another three goal first period for the Jr. Americans, with forwards Adam Gionta and Cameron Doran making the score 3-0. Danbury got its first goal of the weekend early in the second period, only for defenseman Michael Gravina to respond five minutes later to make the score 4-1. The Hat Tricks would go on to score the next two goals before Rochester forward Ryan Shaw would increase the lead to 5-3. Danbury would score one more in the second period to make it 5-4, setting up for an exciting third period. However, King would go on to score twice for the Jr. Americans in the third to make the score 7-4. The Hat Tricks would get a goal back late, but it would not be enough as Rochester would take the win by the score of 7-5.

This will be the second weekend series of the season between Maryland and Rochester, and their first since the opening weekend of the season back in September. The Jr. Americans won game one 3-1 before the Black Bears would respond with a 2-1 game two win. Maryland is 10-4-2 all time against Rochester.

Players to Watch: 

Anthony Pellitteri (D, MYD): Pelletteri has been an impactful blue liner on both sides of the ice for Maryland. In the defensive zone, he does a great job at breaking up passes and driving play the other way. Pelletteri chips in on offense as well, recording 16 points in 21 games, including an assist this past Saturday against Elmira. 

Ryan Shaw (F, ROC): Shaw leads the Jr. Americans in goals (22), assists (22), and points (44). In his last ten games, he has only been held without a point once and has nine goals and 21 points in that span. Shaw recorded one goal and four points this past weekend against Danbury.

Puck drop times for this weekend will be 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, January 9th, and 7:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 10th, at Piney Orchard Ice Arena. All games can be streamed on NATV.