Former University of Maine hockey All-American Gustav Nyquist will turn 35 on Sept. 1.
But, like a fine wine, he is getting better with age.
Nyquist signed a two-year, $6.37 million free agent contract with the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators last summer and has had the best season of his 13-year NHL career heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning this weekend.
A two-time Hobey Baker Award finalist — given to the nation’s best college player, Nyquist played in 81 of Nashville’s 82 regular season games and has 75 points on 23 goals and 52 assists. He is the Predators’ third-leading scorer.
The 2021 UMaine Sports Hall of Famer’s previous season-high was 54 points (27 goals, 27 assists) with Detroit during the 2014-15 campaign.
He is on a line with Nashville scoring leader and fellow Swede Filip Forsberg (48 goals, 46 assists, 94 points in 82 games) and No. 4 point-getter Ryan O’Reilly (26-43-69 in 82 games).
In addition to Nyquist, four other former Black Bears are playing for Stanley Cup playoff-bound teams: Florida winger Ryan Lomberg, Las Vegas defenseman Ben Hutton, Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman and Carolina winger Bradly Nadeau.
Along with the players, Jim Montgomery, a 1998 UMaine Sports Hall of Famer, former Black Bear All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist, will again lead the Boston Bruins into the playoffs as their second-year head coach.
The 54-year-old Montgomery, the Jack Adams Award winner as coach of the year last season when the Bruins set the regular season record for points (135) and wins (65), led the Bruins to a second place finish in the Atlantic Division with their 47-20-15 record this season.
The Bruins will begin a best-of-seven playoff series by hosting Toronto at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The 25-year-old Swayman, who won the Mike Richter Award as the nation’s best goalie during the 2019-20 season at UMaine, has again shared the goaltending with Linus Ullmark.
Swayman has posted a 25-10-8 record this season with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. He has three shutouts.
He has…
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