ORONO, Maine — The numbers are ugly.
The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s 0-6-3 start is the program’s worst since the 1982-83 team lost its first 14 games.
Maine’s 1.11 goals-per game is last among 60 Division I teams. Maine has been held to one goal or less seven times.
The Black Bears are one of just five teams that are winless along with Brown (0-3), Army (0-5-2), Niagara (0-5-2) and Colorado College (0-10).
The power play is mired in an 0-for-29 slump that leaves them 58th in the country (2-for-36).
And they are in the midst of a scoreless stretch spanning 133 minutes and 52 seconds.
Some of the players have never experienced a nine-game winless skein at any level.
They admitted that they are discouraged and frustrated but said they will continue to stay positive and believe they will snap out of it.
Maine will visit No. 5 UMass Lowell (6-1-2) on Friday at 7:15 p.m. before hosting its home opener vs. UML at 5 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s definitely a process,” said freshman defenseman Rob Michel. “We have a lot of young guys, and we’re still trying to find our way. This past weekend [3-0 and 2-0 losses at No. 3 Boston College] was pretty encouraging. We played a full 60 minutes each night and held our own against one of the top teams in the country. We just have to figure out how to get dirty goals.
“It’s a little discouraging that we still haven’t won a game, but we’re going to stay positive. We’re getting better,” Michel added.
Michel is one of seven freshmen who have played in at least five games, and defenseman Keith Muehlbauer made his debut last weekend after sitting out with an injury.
“I’ve been on some other teams that didn’t start well, and the only thing you can do is stay positive,” junior alternate captain Cam Brown said. “We know we can turn it around. It’s hard because we’re playing well, but we just aren’t burying our chances. We have to bear down and finish our chances. Once we do that, we’ll win games.”
Junior Dan Renouf and freshman Sam Becker, who are both defensemen, have never been on a team that went nine games without a win.
“I’ve been trying to deal with it in different ways. We’ll figure something out,” said Renouf. “We ran into a hot goalie [Thatcher Demko] last weekend, and besides not being able to finish, we played well. We dominated play at times. If we start putting pucks in the net, we’ll start winning a lot of games.”
“This is a new experience for me, but we’re all sticking together, which is positive,” said Becker. “Both games against BC were pretty even, we just couldn’t score. If we keep putting pucks on net, we’ll get our goals.
“We feel good about ourselves. We’re confident in ourselves. We just haven’t produced yet,” added Becker.