ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team returned to the ice on Sunday after a two-week break for final exams and the holidays.
The players used the hiatus to spend quality time with their families and friends while also adhering to their weight training program outlined by Black Bear speed, strength and conditioning coach Matt Murray.
They got some skating in, too.
Sophomore defenseman Dan Renouf and sophomore right wing Blaine Byron got to play hockey with their fathers and it was particularly special for Renouf.
“It was the first time I had ever played on a team with my dad,” he said. “We played in a pick-up men’s league. He was extremely excited. We had been trying to make it happen for a while.”
He added that his father, Shawn, assisted on one of his goals.
“He got really pumped about that,” said Renouf, who is from Pickering, Ontario.
Byron said he played in a couple of games with his father, Mike.
“He plays in a firefighters’ league,” said Byron, a native of Manotick, Ontario. “We’ve played together before. Whenever I’m around, he asks me to come out and play. It was good to skate with him again. It’s fun.”
Sophomore defenseman Eric Schurhamer returned to his native St. Paul, Minnesota, and played “boot hockey.”
“We have a rink in the backyard. You play in your shoes and we used tennis balls [instead of pucks],” said Schurhamer. “The rink isn’t very big. It’s from about the blue line to the goal line [on a regulation rink]. And it’s about 30 feet wide at the most. We play four on four and we have a goalie. We use boards for the goals. They’re about 3 feet by 3 feet or 3 by 4.
“It gets a little slippery and a little dangerous. Some people take spills. But it’s a lot of fun,” he added.
Maine junior captain Devin Shore said he spent some time in Ajax, Ontario, volunteering at a hockey clinic for kids.
“It was cool to take a step back and see the little guys out there having fun,” said Shore.
Junior goalie Matt Morris, who hails from Ridgewood, New Jersey, got to play some shinny hockey on a pond.
“I was a forward a couple of times,” said Morris.
His goaltending partner, freshman Sean Romeo, enjoyed the warm 60-degree weather in Cary, North Carolina.
“We had a big pickup football game … two-hand touch,” said Romeo. “There were a few pushes. Some guys got pretty into it but it was nothing serious.”
The players aren’t dwelling on the first half of the season, when they compiled an unflattering 4-13-1 record (2-6 in Hockey East) with eight losses in their last nine games.
“We’ve put the past behind us. We can’t do anything about the past,” said Schurhamer. “We’re all really looking forward to the future. We’re just going to focus shift by shift, game by game, weekend by weekend and keep trucking along.
“We learned that we need to be a better team and be more mentally tough,” added Schurhamer.
Byron said it’s like a new season.
“This is where it matters [most], this is when you want to get hot. The biggest thing is to get better each day and if we do that, the wins are going to come. The second half could be very good for us.”
Shore said that his teammates have returned “in great spirits. We recognize what went wrong in the first half. There’s a lot to play for and everything is up for grabs. We’re really excited about the opportunity to work hard and prove ourselves as a team.”
Even though the Black Bears are 10th in the league standings, five of their six league losses have come at the hands of the top three teams: co-leaders Boston University (2 losses) and UMass Lowell (1) and third-place Vermont (2). Maine dropped overtime games to each of the three teams.
Maine has just one Hockey East game remaining with those teams and that is a Jan. 16 game with UMass Lowell.
“When we’re at our best, we’re a damned good hockey team,” said Renouf. “When we execute, the sky’s the limit.”
Maine has 14 league games left among its 18.
The top four teams in the 12-team league will receive a first-round bye while the other eight teams play a best-of-three first-round series. The teams that finish fifth through eighth will host those series. The four winners in those first-round series will travel for best-of-three quarterfinal sets against the top four teams. The single-game semifinals and final will be held at the TD Garden in Boston.
Maine will host Atlantic Hockey’s 6-6-5 Golden Griffins from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.