ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team has been looking forward to the second half of the season since dropping a 7-4 decision to archrival New Hampshire on Dec. 13 in Portland.
There are 18 regular season games remaining, and the Black Bears are looking to improve upon their 4-13-1 record by stringing together some wins. The next four will be the team’s final nonconference games as they host 6-6-5 Canisius College of Buffalo, New York, from Atlantic Hockey for a pair this weekend before traveling to University of Massachusetts for a two-game set.
The team has already played its two Hockey East games against UMass, winning both.
All 12 Hockey East teams will make the playoffs this season.
Maine’s three senior regulars, center Stu Higgins, defenseman Jake Rutt and wing Connor Leen, are seeing their careers winding down and want to make a statement in the second half.
Higgins and Rutt are alternate captains.
“We have had an absolutely great week of practice,” said Higgins, who has endured his share of frustration this season.
A foot injury suffered during the preseason and an illness have limited him to just six appearances in 18 games.
But he is healthy and ready to go.
“We’re looking at this as a whole new season for the team, and I’m definitely looking at it in that way for myself, too,” said Higgins, who missed the final 13 games of last season after suffering a knee injury that required surgery. “Hopefully, with team success I might experience individual success as well.”
Rutt said they came back a couple of days early to make sure everyone on the team was in playing shape.
“The only way to come out of this stretch is to outwork everyone we’re going to play. That’s what we’re trying to do this week,” he said.
“We just want to get back on track. All of our attention is on Canisius right now,” Leen said.
“Canisius is definitely a solid team,” observed Higgins.
The national statistics show the Black Bears have a daunting task ahead as they have been sub-par in every category.
They are 40th among 59 Division I teams in offense (2.39 goals per game), 53rd in defense (3.72 goals allowed per game), 48th on the power play (11.6 percent) and 47th on the penalty kill (79.4 percent).
The Black Bears’ nine goals in the back-to-back games against New Hampshire — Maine beat UNH 5-2 on Dec. 12 in Manchester, New Hampshire, to snap an eight-game losing streak before losing the next night — represented just the second and third times this season they have scored more than three goals in a game.
“We have to keep things simple and get the puck to the net. The more goals we score, the better chance we have to win,” said Leen, who scored five goals during a six-game stretch in November.
“We have really cracked down on [playing better team] defense in practice this week,” he added.
Maine second-year coach Red Gendron said his team has showed it can play well “for periods of time.”
The next step is playing well for an entire 60-minute game.
“Every individual player has to execute his role and do it well. That doesn’t necessarily ensure success, but it improves our odds,” said Gendron, who wouldn’t reveal if he is going to experiment with line combinations and defense pairings over the next four games to prepare for the final 14 conference games.
“We just want to win games,” said Gendron, whose team may be without junior defenseman Conor Riley, who suffered an upper-body injury.