ORONO, Maine — There are plenty of questions.
And the University of Maine’s struggling men’s hockey team will be looking for answers when the Black Bears visit UMass Lowell for a two-game series this weekend.
Maine, 1-8 overall and 0-4 in Hockey East play, will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak against a UMass Lowell team that hasn’t played since a 6-3 loss to Boston College on Oct. 28. The River Hawks, coming off an NCAA Tournament season and picked to finish second in the league’s preseason coaches poll, are also struggling with an overall 1-3-1 record and 0-2-1 in Hockey East.
UMass Lowell returned eight of its top 10 scorers and standout goalie Doug Carr.
The offensively-challenged Black Bears, who have scored only 10 goals and have been shut out in two of their last three games, will be bolstered by the return of senior center Kyle Beattie, who missed the last four games due to a pair of concussions.
Maine coach Tim Whitehead indicated Thursday that he will be careful with Beattie’s ice time, since he didn’t return to practice until this week.
Beattie was the team’s second-leading returning scorer behind senior right wing and captain Joey Diamond. Beattie had six goals and 21 assists in 40 games on Maine’s NCAA Tournament team last season.
A road trip could be just what the Bears need, as they are 0-5 at Alfond Arena in Orono.
“There’s a little less pressure on the road, especially right now,” said junior right wing Mark Anthoine. “Everyone has a negative outlook toward us because of our start and that could be beneficial. They won’t be as prepared for us.”
“When we’re home, we feel pressure to put on a show for the fans,” said senior left wing Adam Shemansky. “We have to keep it simple and play an effective road game. Anywhere we play, we have to stick to our systems.”
Anthoine said the team is trying new things.
“We haven’t found our identity yet. We keep working hard every day. It takes time,” he said. “We still have every opportunity to get better and once we figure it out, hopefully we’ll go on a run.”
Shemansky, who has yet to register a point, and Anthoine, who has a goal and an assist, are both eager to snap out of their slumps.
“I’m getting opportunities but I need to get pucks to the net and get to the dirty areas [in front],” said Shemansky, who is tied for the team lead in shots on goal with 24.
“We all feel snake-bitten,” said Anthoine, who agreed with Shemansky that they have to score the “greasy, hard-working goals” at the net front.
After the UML series, Maine has just four more games until the Florida College Classic on Dec. 28-29.
The team’s mindset is good, according to the players.
“It’s as good as it can be right now,” said Shemansky. “There’s nothing we can do about the past nine games. We can’t dwell on them.”
“We know what we need to do and we work on it every day. We all come to the rink determined to get better in every aspect of the game. [Whitehead] is guiding us really well. It’s just a matter of time,” said Anthoine.
“We’re demanding more out of ourselves and we’ve been dialed in during practice,” said Diamond. “We’re working on the little things. We’ve worked a lot on getting our shots off quicker.”
Anthoine said the team has focused on “the team stuff first. We can focus on individual stuff later. We have to work together as a team and get a win. It doesn’t matter how we score the goals or who scores them.”
This team has the taken on the personality of it’s coach….excuses.
Boycott going to maine home games until a coaching change is made its the only hope of the school finaly getting rid of Whitehead who has run a national power into the ground. Tough sledding for ya timmy without ridding Shawn or Grant’s coatails? No need to answer the record speaks for its self!
MAINE HOCKEY
SHAWN AND GRANT BUILT IT
TIM WHITEHEAD HAS RUINED IT!
FIRE TIMMY!
HIRE JIMMY!
The wins keeps disapeering but whitehead gets contract extensions and every year gets a 5k raise to his salary? This is a bad example for kids be horrid at your job make excuses for under perfomance but you will make more money each year!
The Coach.
He isn’t a tough guy. He doesn’t have high level motivation and the worst part is he knows it. He never wanted the spotlight but after getting the job and the big bucks he has tried to become something he isn’t. He knows it doesn’t get any better then this for his career so he is afraid to step down but too far over his head to right the ship. It’s time to let him go Abbott (end of season) while there is a sliver of a program left. Once local business takes Maine hockey support out of their budget it doesn’t come back until they win, win big time again but you know that.
As a friend of a bunch of former players to this day, some many made it pro, some still there, and one thing they all had in common was that Shawn Walsh was hard to play for. Many players hated him during practice but loved him when they signed their NHL contract. He was tough, his players were tough and the program was strong. Today we have weakness followed by mediocre play followed by a very weak program.
Coach, it’s time to move on if for nothing more then love for the program. It’s hard, real hard with real uncertainty for you but you know, the players know and we know it is the right thing to do.
Either that or just get the boys winning, kick some tail, make them puke in practice, publicly embarrass them when they don’t try, focus them on hockey not college girls (until the season is over) and step it up.
Kyle Beattie has 13 goals in 92 career games (.14 goals per game) including ZERO points in 3 games this year. Very unlikely his return is going to turn this team around. There are no scorers on this team, and that’s a big problem when you cannot play defense and your goalie doesn’t understand basic principles of geometry.
Good grief Larry stop blaming the players for this program’s current state. We all know who the real problem is…
You are 100% correct. The only reason Diamond has so many points in his career is because of the linemates that he’s had every year, up until now. Now, his role of “the grinder” doesn’t play as big a part as it did when there were scorers on the ice… Now he just looks like a wrecking ball who can’t finish. And he’s “the best one.”
Granted, there are a lot of Freshmen this year, and a lot of them look very promising. However, the old adage applies here:
“When is the best time to start a Freshman?”
“When he’s a Senior!”
..
I wonder WHY or IF the A.D.(Abbott)doesn’t take a trip this weekend to Lowell to see the series vs UML…I mean it would be a short trip for him,as he spends most of his time down in Portland and away from his “HOBBY” @ UMaine……Long Season for EVERYONE….1-8-0 and if you look at the slate of games left after this series….well 10 wins might be impossible this season. Last I knew you don’t get a the 1st pick in the Draft if you finish last in Hockey East and 59th out of 59 College Hockey Teams.
Well, Tim seems to have asked the players to go on the record with the press that they support him. Also, we’ve also brought the “it’s tough to play at home” out of the Tim Whitehead bag of excuses. This team is damn lucky we don’t treat them like the fans in Montreal treat the Canadiens. Want to see stress when you play at home, we can start booing. If you can’t show up to play and have fun at Alfond Arena wearing the UM jersey, just turn in the skates.
UML was a top 10 preseason piuck who has ate it as much as uMO has. I look for them to come out flying in order to get a much needed win against the staggering black bears
Maybe the 2 non-starting goalies can watch Carr tonight and learn how to play from him……