The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s impressive start hit a bump on Saturday night when the Black Bears were thumped by Miami University 5-0 at Oxford, Ohio.
So now the Black Bears (3-2-1) will lick their wounds and prepare for a second straight road series when they make the 505-mile trip from Orono to Hamilton, New York, to take on winless Colgate University (0-3-2) on Friday and Saturday evenings.
“We are prepared to get better in the areas we didn’t perform well: Discipline, general defensive play and the power play. It’s simple. We have a lot of work to do,” said UMaine fourth-year head coach Red Gendron.
“We have to play a full 60 minutes,” said senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Schurhamer. “We definitely learned a lesson this weekend.”
Discipline continued to be an issue in the 3-3 tie and 5-0 loss at Miami.
The Black Bears gave the RedHawks eight power-play chances in each game and Miami scored three times, including twice only 5:11 apart in the second period of Saturday’s game, which turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-0 hole.
Opposing teams have had at least six power plays in five of UMaine’s six games and at least eight in four of them.
Senior center and assistant captain Blaine Byron said it is important to reduce the penalties.
“We’re a good team 5-on-5,” said Byron.
UMaine’s 83.7 percent penalty-killing percentage (36-for-43) is 32nd among the 54 Division I teams who have played so far this season.
The power-play statistics are even worse.
UMaine’s power play is operating at 8.6 percent (3-for-35) which is 50th. In addition, UMaine has given up two shorthanded goals. The Black Bears are mired in an 0-for-13 slump with the man advantage.
Gendron said he intends to switch up some personnel to try to get the power play untracked and that his players must learn to execute the game plan.
“You have to take what the opponent gives you on the power play. Period,” said Gendron. “That’s one of the key principles. If you try to do something that isn’t there, you rarely have any success.”
Gendron said his young team must learn that you have to play even better on the road than you do at home to win consistently.
“You can’t get away with as many mistakes on the road,” said Gendron. “It’s that simple. You have to be that much more consistent and precise on the road and execute all facets of your game.
“That’s not what happened over the weekend,” he added.
Mundinger makes debut
The tallest goalie in program history made his debut for UMaine on Saturday night.
Six-foot-eight Stephen Mundinger of Smithtown, New York, relieved Rob McGovern with 13:19 remaining in the game and the Black Bears trailing 4-0.
He made seven saves, including four of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety, and allowed one goal.
“It was pretty surreal,” said Mundinger, who wasn’t nervous. “It was pretty loud. But I like environments like that.”
He said he would have liked to have had the goal he allowed to Kiefer Sherwood back, but was generally satisfied with his performance.
“I thought I made some good saves but my defense helped me out a lot. They made it as easy as possible for me,” said Mundinger.
He felt he was well-prepared as he played summer hockey with some professional players and attended a New York Islanders development camp.
“He did a great job,’ said Byron.