ORONO, Maine — After another mystifyingly poor performance in a 5-1 loss to Colgate University on Saturday night, the University of Maine men’s hockey team is preparing for its Hockey East stretch run, which begins with a pair of home games against the University of Connecticut on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The UConn series will kick off a busy schedule that will see the 5-12-4 Black Bears play five games in nine nights including a Tuesday night game (Jan. 19) against a visiting Quinnipiac University team that is ranked first in one national poll and already has a convincing 4-0 win over UMaine.
The Quinnipiac game will be UMaine’s last nonconference contest as the other 14 games are all Hockey East games.
UMaine snapped a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) with Friday night’s dramatic 3-1 win over Colgate, but the Black Bears came out flat on Saturday night and the determined Raiders seized the momentum from the opening whistle.
Not only did Colgate score the only goal of the first period and outshoot UMaine 12-3, Raiders backup goalie Zac Hamilton didn’t have to make a Grade-A save. UMaine goalie Matt Morris was forced to make seven.
“We aren’t the most skilled team in college hockey. We’re a hard-working team. But we got outworked on Saturday night. We can’t get outworked,” said UMaine junior left wing Blaine Byron.
“For whatever reason, we didn’t come out with enough energy,” said senior defenseman Conor Riley. “We’re hot and cold right now. We’ll have some shifts where we’re all over [our opponents] and other shifts when we’re just sitting back. We have to make sure we don’t have any [bad] shifts.”
During UMaine’s 1-4-1 stretch, the Black Bears have conceded the game-opening goal in
all six games, and they have been outscored in the first period 10-2. On the season, they have been outscored 20-10 in the first period.
UMaine is 3-1 when it leads after one period and 0-8 when it trails after one. The Black Bears are 2-2-3 when tied after the first 20 minutes. UMaine is 3-1-1 when it scores the game’s first goal and 2-11-3 when the opponent does.
“We can’t be coming out flat, especially at home,” said junior center Cam Brown.
“It’s something we’ve talked about and we’re trying to overcome,” said junior defenseman Eric Schurhamer, who noted that they have altered their routine in practice and during pre-game warmups to ensure a fast start.
“But it comes down to us bearing down and getting through it,” Schurhamer said.
The Black Bears are looking forward to getting back into Hockey East play.
They are 2-5-1 in Hockey East and in 11th place. But they have played fewer games than any team except New Hampshire and Providence, who also have played eight. Notre Dame has played nine. Everybody else has played at least 10.
“Every point matters in Hockey East,” said Brown. “You can climb up the standings more than you think by winning some games.”