ORONO, Maine — Redemption.
For the University of Maine men’s hockey team, the 2015-16 season was a forgettable one.
The Black Bears finished 8-24-6 and wound up 11th in Hockey East with a 5-15-2 mark.
UMaine begins its quest for atonement, in the win-loss column and in the standings, when it hosts Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of the ECAC for games on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.
UMaine is coming off Sunday’s 6-5 exhibition loss to Canadian national championship runner-up St. Francis Xavier of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The Black Bears carried the play 5-on-5 but were victimized by penalties as the X-Men converted three of five second-period power plays and scored another goal one second after a five-minute major had elapsed.
The X-Men enjoyed two 5-on-3s in the period.
The Engineers posted a 3-0 exhibition win over McGill University of Montreal in a penalty-filled affair (85 minutes combined).
“There is huge excitement around here,” said fourth-year UMaine head coach Red Gendron. “We shot ourselves in the foot last Sunday. We did several very good things, but we have to learn from our mistakes.
“We have to keep our sticks down and not take any of those stick penalties,” said Gendron, referring to high-sticking, slashing, hooking, cross-checking and tripping. “And we have to clean up some issues on the penalty kill. If we do those things, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Engineers of 11th-year head coach Seth Appert are coming off an 18-15-7 season in which they were ousted in the ECAC quarterfinals by NCAA tournament team Harvard University.
It was a nice bounce-back year after two losing seasons in 2014-15 (12-26-3) and 2013-14 (15-16-6).
“It’s going to be a significant test for us,” Gendron said. “We have to play similarly 5-on-5 like we did on Sunday when he controlled large segments of the game. I’m looking for us to be solid on special teams and play our systems with precision.”
UMaine senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Schurhamer added that UMaine would like to build some momentum right off the bat.
“We’re looking for a good year,” he said. “We’ve got a good group of returning players and a good group of freshmen.”
The Black Bears were winless in their first 11 games (0-8-3) a year ago, but the first 10 were played on the road or at neutral sites.
“It’s going to be nice to play at home,” said senior forward Cam Brown.
“We’re going to be fast and competitive every night,” said Brown, who feels the first eight games, all nonconference contests, will be valuable in preparing them for their Hockey East campaign.
After hosting the Engineers, UMaine entertains NCAA runner-up Quinnipiac, also of the ECAC, for games on Oct. 14 and 15.