ORONO, Maine — After a trying stretch in which he sat out 10 games with a lower body injury, junior defenseman Eric Schurhamer is eligible to return to the University of Maine men’s hockey lineup when the Black Bears face archrival New Hampshire in a pair of nonconference games in Portland and Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
“It wasn’t fun. Paul Culina, Matt Murray and I have all been working tediously so I could get back into the lineup,” said Schurhamer, referring to athletic trainer Culina and speed, strength and conditioning coach Murray.
“I’m happy to be back. This is the best I’ve felt in six weeks. The spring is back in my step,” he added. “I want to do anything I can to help the team out.”
Schurhamer had three assists in seven games before getting hurt. He had notched five goals and 16 assists in 62 games over his first two seasons.
He is expected to play in at least one of the UNH games as the Black Bears try to build on a 4-1-1 stretch to end the first half. They had gone 0-8-3 in their first 11 games.
“We don’t have any injuries going into the second half so we will have more depth,” senior defenseman Conor Riley said. “Everybody is pretty excited to get going.”
Like Maine, UNH has had a resurgence after an underwhelming 3-6-3 start, going 3-0-1 in its last four games including a 3-3 tie and 5-2 win vs. Maine on Dec. 4-5.
After scoring a dismal 11 goals in its first 11 games, Maine has lit the goal light 20 times in its last six games, which has jump-started the team’s confidence.
“We kept things simple the last six games. We got the puck to the net and made the easy play. If we keep doing that going forward, we should be all right,” said senior center Will Merchant, the team’s leading goal scorer with six.
“Scoring had been our problem at the beginning of the year but our lines are clicking now, everybody has gotten use to each other, and both goalies [Matt Morris, Rob McGovern] are playing well. If we continue that, we’ll have some good success,” said freshman right wing Brendan Robbins.
Six of Maine’s 17 games to date have come against teams ranked in the top eight in the latest national U.S. College Hockey Online poll. Maine went 0-5-1 in those six games but two of the losses were by two goals or fewer and another was by three with an empty-net goal.
Maine’s final 19 games include just three games against teams ranked in the top 10 in the latest USCHO poll.