The University of Maine men’s hockey team got outshot by just 40 shots this season, 1,268-1,228, but opponents scored 51 more goals than the Black Bears (129-76) and that was the primary reason the Black Bears had a forgettable regular season.
Two gritty overtime losses to the nation’s hottest team, Northeastern University, in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs give the Alfond Arena faithful a glimmer of optimism for next season.
The 2015-16 Black Bears finished 8-24-6, the worst by a Maine team since the 1982-83 team went 5-24. They scored one goal or less in 18 games.
The 11th-place Hockey East finishers were underskilled. Maine scored on just 6.2 percent of its shots on goal, which was the worst among the nation’s 60 Division I teams, and averaged two goals per game, which was 56th.
Poor offensive production meant Maine’s margin of error was razor-thin. To pull out a win it needed top-notch goaltending, a thorough defensive game, good puck management without turning it over in critical spots and an even special teams battle.
When one of those areas broke down, Maine usually lost.
The Black Bears went 0-12 against the top six teams in Hockey East during the regular season, another indicator of its talent deficiency. Seven of their eight wins came at the expense of teams that finished ninth or lower in their respective leagues.
None of the members of the current team has ever earned an All-Hockey East honor outside of academics.
The goaltending of freshman Rob McGovern and redshirt junior Matt Morris was stellar at times but substandard on other occasions.
“If we finished off our plays more consistently and our defense and goaltending were more consistent, we would have had a better season,” Maine third-year coach Red Gendron said. “But we had a team that played its tails off all year long. We got an awful lot out of our people. We may have gotten outscored but we didn’t get outplayed many nights.”
Maine will graduate three of its top six scorers in second-leading point-getter Will Merchant, who had a team-high 13 goals to go with nine assists; captain Steven Swavely (9 & 10), the team’s No. 4 scorer, and Andrew Tegeler (4 & 11), who was tied for fifth.
Merchant and Tegeler had more points this season than they had amassed in their entire careers coming into the campaign.
All three were valuable power forwards with tireless work ethics, but none of them was an elite scorer. Swavely’s 81 career points in 146 games was tops on the team.
Swavely and alternate captains Merchant, senior defenseman Conor Riley (1 & 4) and junior center Cam Brown had impressive leadership qualities.
Versatile Billy Norman will join Swavely, Merchant, Tegler and Riley in departing the program.
The strength of next year’s team should be the defense corps.
Junior Dan Renouf (6 & 9) was the team’s top defenseman and his offensive skills have developed significantly. He was one of the league’s better blue-liners.
Rob Michel (0 & 8) had a strong freshman year and could eventually become of the league’s top defensemen.
Junior Eric Schurhamer (2 & 8) has become more consistent and could again be a point-producer.
Sophomore Mark Hamilton (0 & 6) and freshmen Sam Becker (0 & 1) and Keith Muehlbauer (1 & 0) improved over the course of the season after a shaky, mistake-prone start. Hamilton supplied a needed physical presence but needs to reduce his penalty minutes (79).
Six-foot-four, 201-pound Patrick Holway, a sixth-round draft pick of Detroit who is playing in the prestigious United States Hockey League, will be very much in the mix on the blue line next season and 6-6, 225-pound Stephen Cochrane, a redshirt this past season, could also figure in.
“We should be in good shape on the back end,” said Gendron, who received a two-year contract extension last month.
Gendron feels “pretty comfortable” with McGovern (2-14-3 record, 2.78 goals-against average, .905 save percentage) and Morris (6-10-3, 3.54, .901) but also said “they have to evolve to where they give us consistent performances on a nightly basis.”
Sophomore Sean Romeo, who played in 23 games in 2014-15, was the third-string goalie.
The returning catalysts up front will be Blaine Byron, the team’s leading scorer with 8 & 16, third-leading point-producer Brown (8 & 12), sophomore Nolan Vesey (5 & 6) and freshman Brendan Robbins (4 & 7).
Byron is the team’s most creative forward but needs to continue to get stronger so he can protect the puck more effectively.
The energetic and elusive Brown has to keep working on his shot and his release, He has a strong finish to build with goals in each of the two Northeastern playoff games and had three goals in his last five games.
Byron (2 & 7) and Brown (5 & 3) were two of the team’s top three point producers on a power play that wound up 47th in the country after an end-of-season resurgence (6-for-18).
Vesey, who had 10 goals and 23 points as a freshman, struggled for much of the season but played his best hockey at the end of the year, stringing together a five-game points streak (1 & 4) to take into next season.
Robbins supplied speed and tenacity and spent time on one of the top two lines.
Sophomore Cedric Lacroix (5 & 3) and freshman Danny Perez (2 & 6) were physical and tough to play against and could be more productive next season. Perez has surprising speed for a 6-4, 205-pounder.
Juniors Brian Morgan (6 & 1), who went pointless in his last 11 games, and Brady Campbell (1 & 1) will have to be more of a factor and the jury is still out on freshmen Dane Gibson (1 & 3) and Justin Rai (0 & 1). Hard-nosed Malcolm Hayes will return after sitting out with season-ending shoulder surgery and sophomore Jack Musil will also be in the mix.
Detroit fifth-round draft pick Chase Pearson (34 points in 44 games for Youngstown in the USHL), Mitch Fossier (32 points in 49 games for Sioux City in the USHL), and Florida seventh-round pick Patrick Shea (39 points in 33 games at Kimball Union Academy) and Tim Doherty (43 points in 30 games for the Boston Junior Bruins) could all make an immediate impact.
“Our freshman class has size, speed and all sorts of things. They will get playing minutes early and often. I’m pretty confident they’ll be able to produce,” said Gendron, who is looking to bring in at least one more player for next season.
Maine wound up 50th in goals-against average (3.39) and 52nd on the penalty kill (78.5 percent).
Barring injuries, next year’s Maine team should win at least 14 games with its improved skill level, easier nonconference schedule and maturation.