UMaine hockey adds new assistant coach with NCAA championship pedigree

The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team announced a new assistant will be joining head coach Ben Barr’s staff this coming season.

Rick Bennett, who led Union College to an NCAA Division I championship in 2014, is bringing more than 20 years of college coaching experience to the Black Bears bench. UMaine formally announced his hiring Thursday afternoon.

“Rick is one the most genuine people I’ve ever met,” Barr said in a press release. “Maine Hockey is fortunate to have him on staff.”

The addition marks a reunion of sorts for Barr and Bennett, who served together as assistants at Union under then-head coach Nate Leaman. Barr followed Leaman to Providence College in 2011 and Bennett became the Union head coach.

Bennett served as head coach at Union until his resignation in 2022 after an allegation and subsequent investigation regarding his coaching style and practices. He served as an assistant coach at Quinnipiac University last season after coaching the Savannah Ghost Pirates in the ECHL, a professional developmental league for the AHL and NHL.

He joins a UMaine program that went 24-8-6 last season, the program’s best record since the 2003-04 campaign. The Black Bears finished in the top 10 of both major national hockey polls.