ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s hockey futility continued Sunday afternoon.
The Black Bears were outclassed by the University of New Hampshire Wildcats and absorbed a 4-0 setback at Alfond Arena that means the Black Bears are off to their worst start in Hockey East history.
New Hampshire capitalized on two early penalties to take a lead on senior right wing Austin Block’s power-play goal and never looked back. Block added another goal in the second period.
Maine is now 0-4 in Hockey East and 1-8 overall, including six straight losses, and 0-4 in Hockey East.
Maine’s previous worst start in Hockey East was 0-3 in the 1985-86 season. Hockey East’s inaugural season was 1984-85.
The Black Bears are also 0-5 at home. This matches the second-worst home start in program history, tying the 1981-82 team. The record is six.
It was the fourth time Maine has been shut out this season and Maine has now scored only 10 goals in nine games.
UNH improved to 5-1-1 and 3-1-1 in Hockey East.
Sophomore goalie Casey DeSmith made 42 saves in posting the shutout while Maine’s Dan Sullivan finished with a career-high 41 saves.
Conor Riley’s boarding penalty 1:19 into the game and Brice O’Connor’s tripping call 50 seconds later gave UNH a two-man advantage for 1:10 and Block scored four seconds after Riley’s penalty had elapsed.
Junior defenseman Eric Knodel’s goal after he came out of the penalty box with 1:17 left in the period made it 2-0. UNH dominated the first period to the tune of a 17-9 shots on goal advantage and could have been further ahead if it wasn’t for Sullivan’s nine Grade-A (high-percentage) saves.
Block’s second goal came with 4:39 left in the period. It came seven seconds after Maine had killed off an O’Connor slashing penalty.
Greg Burke added a third-period goal.
“We couldn’t find the balance between playing physical and staying out of the penalty box and it cost us right out of the gate,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.
Maine senior tri-captain and right wing Joey Diamond said he helped get the team hyped up before the game but that translated into the early penalties “and [UNH] jump-started their offense on the power play.”
On the opening goal, Connor Hardowa made a nice diagonal cross-ice pass to Block in the left circle and he one-timed the puck into the short-side corner before Sullivan could scramble across.
“It was a perfect pass. I saw the goalie wasn’t in the net and I shot it as hard as I could,” said Block.
It appeared as though the Black Bears were going to escape the period with just a one-goal deficit but Knodel came out of the penalty box after serving a roughing penalty and Casey Thrush found him alone behind the Maine defense.
Knodel could have skated in alone on Sullivan but elected to tee up a slapshot from the middle of the high slot and he blasted it over Sullivan’s blocker.
“That was a great shot. I thought he was going to come in on me,” said Sullivan. “Next time I’ll be sure to come out more and take away that angle to discourage him from taking the shot.”
“That goal was huge,” said UNH coach Dick Umile.
The Black Bears played on more even terms with UNH in the second and third periods but the Bears couldn’t score as both goalies came up with several gems.
It was Block who gave UNH some helpful breathing room in the second period.
Block, positioned at the edge of the crease to Sullivan’s right, tipped a Hardowa point shot on net that Sullivan saved. But the rebound came right back to his stick and he jammed it home.
Burke capped the scoring by sweeping home a wrister from the right circle after his initial shot was blocked by Maine’s Mike Cornell.
DeSmith finished with 20 Grade-A (high-percentage) saves among his 42 but he faced very few second or third shots.
“The guys blocked a lot of shots and played fantastic defense. They kept most of the shots to the outside and that made my job real easy,” said DeSmith.
“The box score is deceiving,” said Maine senior defenseman and tri-captain Mike Cornell. “We had 42 shots but (UNH) wasn’t scrambling around as much as we were [in the defensive zone]. They were creating rebounds. A lot of our shots were from the perimeter or we were throwing them on net hoping for the best.”
Sullivan made 22 Grade-A stops among his 41.
“[Sullivan] is the last guy I would fault. He played a great game,” said Whitehead who felt his team took too long to release their shots.
WOW..that was a good one..FIRE WHITEHEAD IMMEDIATELY!!!
I don’t what Abbott is waiting for. Already one of the worst 5 teams in college hockey.
It’s unlikely that a College hockey coach will get fired mid-season… unfortunately..
We are rapidly approaching the bottom. Before this loss, we were 55th out of 59 total D-I teams. I have been thinking that it would be impossible to believe that UMaine could fire Coach Whitehead mid-season, but now I think it would likely be best.
At any rate, he will leave at the end of the season and his legacy will be one of turning a D-I hockey powerhouse into the laughing stock of Hockey East. He will have to live with that legacy. It’s shameful that it had to come to this.
What is truly a shame is the complete disgusting way that the University President, AD and all others concerned can continue to give outrageous raises to the Administration when the results from ALL of the Sports teams is abysmal at the very best. If you do not win, you cannot get athletes to come here taking our state college OFF the radar and OFF the map. John Winkin, Shawn Walsh, Joanne Palombo all worked tirelessly in getting Maine to be a household name in Baseball, Hockey and Women’s Basketball and we have watched the collapse of ALL three of these programs over the past 10 years…I find it amazing that the tuitions continue to go up, the salaries of administration goes up, yet the quality offered to the students and student athletes continues to fall..That is what truly is SHAMEFUL!!!!
So should they have given Palombo a raise to keep her working tirelessly? Or keep the salaries of administration down? There’s a hole in your logic.
First they should have given Palombo the raise, since it’s athletics that has put Maine on the map, secondly, they should only reward those administrators that truly do a service to the school, not across the board pay increases BECAUSE they are administrators. Finally, if you want decent teams you have to pay the going rate for decent coaches. Shawn Walsh could have made a whole lot more anywhere else in the country, but we were truly blesses that he showed Loyalty to Maine….that doesnt come along very often.
That just sewed up Cozzy’s new extension. Time to take inventory, shall we????
Blodgett posted the 3 worst W/L records in school history – received extension
Woodward posted 7 consecutive 1 & done’s in the AE Tourney – received extension
Trimper posted a sub .500 record last season – received extension
Cozzy posted best season in program history last season – no extension (contract up in 12 days)
Whitehead lead team to NCAA Tourney last season – receive extension????? As long as he doesn’t make the Tourney or go over .500 then yes, that will be the case. :)
What is going on up at “THE u” anyway?
This was a tough week. Soccer, Field Hockey both choked in the AE Tournies, while Men’s and women’s hockey are a combined 2-15. Football just got spanked at home AGAIN.
And Mr. March & MBB is just about to carry on the losing ways. Thank God for WBB is all I can say, as they actually look to be the real deal for once. Funny how that works when you pinpoint the problem and then make the neccessary changes.
Go figure.
Have you watched video of MBB this year? It’s gonna take a lot of Woo-Woo magic for that team to go below-.500 this year. Their pressure man defense is much better than crap they’ve called defense the past through years.
2 losses away from ther worst home start and 4 away from the worst start in team history you can do it Timmay!!!
I can’t see this team with Timmay at the helm ever getting out of this funk. Might be the worst season ever
1-8-0 record
1/44=2.3% on the PP
Giving up some 40+ shots per game
Setting new records for futility
Good grief when will this nightmare end…
When the Freshmen are Seniors.
You think they’ll stick around that long?
Good point..
I would like to change my previous comment to:”If the Freshmen become Seniors”
Abbott needs to grow a pair and FIRE Whitehead.
Whitehead needs to go!
He’s no Shawn Walsh that’s for sure and it’s past time for him to go. Have gone from Jimmy Howard and Co to this,ugh
You’re right. No one is. But let’s not forget – he was hand-picked by Shawn.
bob you’re correct but would walsh stand for this? he’d admit it was a mistake and move on.
No argument here. Just paying homage to a man and a beautiful memory.
Yeah,he was a great coach just like Coach York at B.C where my nephew,Joe Pearce,was back up goalie for three years. Watched Jimmy Howard beat him twice.
To quote an old song – “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end…”
yeah,being a hockey groupie going to all the games was fun while it lasted !
No way! He was brought in to keep the chair warm while Walsh won his battle with cancer — he had been here as a volunteer assistant and knew Maine’s systems. No way he was hand-picked to be anything but that. Shawn was going to WIN — and, unfortunately, he did not. As a result, this urban “hand-picked” myth started. Sure has helped the continued storied program, hasn’t it? Said no one, ever!!
Sorry. You’re wrong.
Prove it…what OtherMainah said is spot on. Walsh was a winner, and winners expect to beat cancer. Walsh picked Whitehead to be the Interim Coach while he got better…he didn’t pick him to lead the team after he died.
Whitehead was picked because he is bland, uninspiring, and never the type who would upstage Walsh and possibly threaten his coaching position.
I’m afraid I can’t see into someone’s mind, as you and OtherMainah obviously can. All I can tell you is that I was covering Maine hockey at the time (not for BDN) and at no time did Shawn indicate he was naming an interim coach. In fact, he waited until he knew he wasn’t going to beat the disease before he named Whitehead.
Covering for what stellar publication, Woody? I know, I know — don’t feed the trolls, Bangor and BBear. But, it’s so easy …! Exactly when did he know he was going to beat the disease? The day he died, perhaps?
bangornative27 – your best bet is to avoid all responses to woody. He’s a contrarian, only here to argue counterpoint to any arguement you make. Not to mention he’s a Timmay lover.
I too believe that Shawn never intended to have Timmay stay on permanently. But nobody will ever know his intentions, and really it doesn’t matter. What matters now is how to move this program forward. You care about that. I care about that. OtherMainer cares about that. Old woody just likes to argue so don’t waste your time on him is my advice.
The time has come (and gone) for some new leadership behind the Maine hockey bench… They need someone to motivate these kids to play to their full potential.. They also need a new goalie coach. (hint, hint!!)
How do you fire a volunteer? The current goalie coach David Alexander, is a volunteer according the this week’s program.
This is not a professional team, so you can forget about Coach Whitehead losing his job now or at anytime during the season – things like that do not happen at the college level. It is questionable if he will even lose his job after this season. The losses are one thing, and I understand that there are more Freshmen than Seniors on the squad. This certainly contributes to the lack of experience we hear about from the apologists. What really “rips” me is that the team is playing uninspired hockey. I see a total lack of cohesive flow on the ice, concentration, and worst of all – effort. To me, this represents a total lack of leadership at the top (Coach Whitehead). As evidenced with the Cindy Blodgett mess, it is going to take A LOT for Steve Abbott to fire Coach Whitehead – he doesn’t have the “guts” to take such an action. I’m afraid that even with a poor showing this season, Coach Whitehead will be back next year. THAT – would be a shame!
This is literally everything I was going to say.
“[Sullivan] is the last guy I would fault. He played a great game,” said Whitehead
Then who would be the first????
Whitehead!
Will the insane lock out ever end ? Like eating your young !
Academics come first.. the money spent on college sports is stupid….if it helps recruiting to have all these teams, they can go to Penn State instead…
I agree with everyone and what your saying….but we’ve just got a long season to suck it up, because theres NO way they will fire Timmy nor Abbott til at least the end of the year. I have no doubt theere will be changes after the year, at least there had better be, lol.
Whitehead won’t be fired, I can promise you that.
As they say, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can rise up. Well, I think Maine Hockey as officially reached rock bottom. I don’t know how anyone could look at it any other way. This season isn’t just an off year, or a rebuilding exercise following a great run. That should have happened 5-6 years ago after Maine failed to make the Hockey East Tournament for the first time since the mid-80s. After alienating Grant Standbrook and shipping him off, Tim has had complete control of the program now for several years. He’s got 2 Hockey East Final appearances and 1 NCAA game (loss) to show for it. The regular season record against conference opponents during that time has been abyssal for a program like Maine. To me, that doesn’t look like a top tier Div 1 program. That looks a lot like your early to mid-90s version of Merrimack, Lowell and UMass.
If administration wants a program that is fighting to finish in the BOTTOM 8 of Hockey East, that that is looking for an annual upset in the conference tournament, and praying for an NCAA appearance every 4-5 years, then by all means they should keep doing exactly they’ve been doing — renew Whitehead again. But, stop the speech (and the $50 seats) about honoring the Maine Hockey tradition. That’s an insult to the coaches and players that built that program. Sadly, those days are gone.
“Next time I’ll be sure to come out more and take away that angle to discourage him from taking the shot.”
As a recent graduate of UMaine, and an avid hockey fan – I’ve been watching Sullivan for the past 3 years. For whatever reason, in the games that I saw (Homecoming weekend) I noticed, for the first time, that Sullivan was so incredibly deep in his net, he wasn’t giving himself a chance at saving anything! I someone telling him to sit deeper in the net? Because that is NOT the answer for a goalie who has less-than-cat-like reflexes, such as Sullivan. In fact, we had a nickname for the one save that he could make – The “Sully Shrug”. If it can’t be saved with a shrug of the shoulders, it’s not going to be saved at all. He needs to sit at the top of his crease as the puck is brought in; I never saw him even get close to the top of the crease in the games that I saw.
And for the love of God, will someone PLEASE teach him how to handle the puck. On more than one occasion, I’ve seen him go out to play the puck, only to pass it to the other team, who launches it into the empty net.
He’s gotten, better, for sure. But he still has a long way to go – as do the other UMaine goaltenders.
What to do about Tim Whitehead? Many say fire him, and rightfully so. 1-8-0 record.
And they’re lucky to have that one win.
And folks, it’s only going to get worse as they continue to lose in ways
associated with other programs, but not Maine.
For the 1st 5 years Timmay was coaching Shawn’s
players. For the next 3-4 years, he was
recruiting off the Maine legacy. Now we see
what Maine has become when Timmay can no longer live off either.
But I say hold off on the firing of the hapless Timmay
Whitehead. Interim coaches complicate
the hiring process, especially when the team improves under them (how could
they not?) and even more so when they have been around for a while. Remember, after Coach Walsh turned the team
over to Timmay on an INTERIM basis – they went all the way to the NCAA title
game. (A game I still believe Walsh
would have won – Timmay’s passiveness in the waning moments lost them that
game.) Upon returning to Orono, then-Maine
AD Susan Tyler announced that Whitehead was being hired as Head Coach, even
though UMass-Lowell had declined to renew his contract after five years as
their head coach just the year before.
Tyler made an EMOTIONAL decision – a mistake Maine cannot afford to make
again.
The better approach here is to fire Timmay at 9 am the day
immediately after the season ends. This
will send a clear message to coaching candidates that Maine is serious about
its head coaching position, ready to start looking at candidates, and first in
line to speak to the top available coaches.
Regardless of what has transpired the past 11-12 years, Maine is and
will be the best available opportunity out there. The pieces are still here. Great fan base –
the best. Best home field advantage in the entire NCAA across any sport. A dominant legacy buried in dust, waiting for
someone who truly appreciates and lives for that legacy to come home, dust off
that legacy and raise it to the rafters of The Alfond once again.
Why do we spend millions on sports? As a tax payer and hopefully soon to have a son in college I do not have the money to spend on things that will not help my son or I in any way. Just waste more money . I am not against them playing ball but let them raise there own funds to do it.
Hockey is Ball ?
No I bet most Hockey players are smarter than football players . They still get scholarships even the ones who do not need it.
Is Semler looking for work for the rest of the year? His teams didn’t have any talent for the most part, but at least they worked hard.
What a difference 20 years makes. Timmy has destroyed what Walsh built.
I see lots of angry fans and I am in the same boat as anyone that cares about the program. I am guessing though not many of you have come to your senses and stopped going to home games though? It’s kind of like complaining about elected officals if you didn’t vote. Instead of complaining send the loudest message to the AD and school brass STOP PAYING YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY TO THE SCHOOL! I watch every game on tv or listen on the radio but have not attended a Maine home game since Timmy got his last undeserved contract extension. That was this fans breaking point as much as I love hockey at Alfond I said I am done giving money for a school that is rewarding incompetence. If you care about the team stop going to home games that is the only way there will ever be a coaching change. As much as the kids will miss Timmy dressing up and passing out candy to them on Halloween the hockey program will be getting a great treat by getting a new bench boss. For those of you who keep complaining but still go to the games your nothing but sheep and Timmy is Your sheppard!
MAINE HOCKEY
SHAWN AND GRANT BUILT IT
TIM WHITEHEAD RUINED IT!
HIRE JIMMY FIRE TIMMY!
It is very sad what has happened to a once great hockey program. I am worried about not being able to get a qualified coach interested in coming to Maine if and when Whitehead is fired, and for any coach coming in, they will be faced with a difficult task of recruiting good players to come to Maine, where the program has hit rock bottom.
Whitehead is a disgrace and if he actually cared about the program at all he would step aside because he’s in way over his head at this point.