University of Maine fourth-year hockey coach Red Gendron said he isn’t discouraged by his youthful team and its recent 1-6-2 plunge that followed three season-opening wins.
The Black Bears snapped their seven-game winless streak with a 5-2 victory over fifth-ranked UMass Lowell on Friday night in Orono but came out flat on Sunday afternoon and dropped a 4-1 decision to the motivated River Hawks in Lowell.
UMaine is now 4-6-2 overall and 1-3 in Hockey East.
“We have grown but we haven’t fully accepted the fundamental lesson that your work habits and compete level have to be there every shift, every period and every game,” said Gendron. “You also have to have discipline and you have to execute your systems.
“When you do that on a consistent level, you put yourself in position to win every game. You aren’t going to win every game but you put yourself in position to do so,” he added.
Maine is the nation’s 13th-most penalized team (17.4 penalty minutes per game).
The Black Bears’ early-season schedule has been demanding.
Six of UMaine’s 12 games have come against teams currently ranked in the top six in the weekly United States College Hockey Online poll. UMaine has gone 2-4 in those games with two of the losses being by a 3-2 score to Quinnipiac in overtime and Boston College.
No. 3 Boston College (10-2-1), No. 4 Quinnipiac (7-3-1) and No. 6 UMass Lowell (7-3-2) have combined for a 24-8-4 record.
UMaine’s next 10 games come against five unranked teams although the Black Bears have suffered a loss and a tie to 3-6-2 Miami as well as 2-5-4 Colgate.
The University of Vermont Catamounts, who will host UMaine on Friday night and Saturday, is the only team among the five that has a winning record (5-3-1).
“We’ve been tested and we’ve proven that we can be a good team,” said senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Schurhamer. “Everyone has to pull together and bear down.“
UMaine will play archrival New Hampshire (4-5-2) three times, including once in Manchester, N.H.; the University of Connecticut (3-3-5) and American International College (2-3-4) twice each and the Black Bears will also one game against Brown University (1-5) in Portland.
“We have to learn from every game. We have to stay positive,” said senior center and captain Cam Brown. “We know what we’ve done wrong.”
Brown said the team still has high expectations and noted that it is a close-knit group.
“We’re happy with the guys we have,” he said. “We’re going to continue to grow and get better every single day. If we do that, we’ll keep winning more games.”
“I know we can (be successful),” insisted Gendron. “We’ve done it before.”
UMaine will need to develop some supplemental scoring.
The line of Brown between senior assistant captain Blaine Byron and sophomore Dane Gibson has scored six of the eight goals since they were put together three games ago.
Brown has a goal and six assists; Hockey East Player of the Week Byron has 3 & 3 and Gibson has 2 & 2.
UMaine is currently 39th among 60 teams in the country in both scoring (2.67 goals per game) and goals allowed (3.25); 55th in power play efficiency (8.7 percent) and 35th on the penalty kill (82.5 percent).
Byron, who is in the midst of a six-game points streak (4 & 5), is the team’s top scorer with 6 & 6 and Brown is second with 1 & 9. Freshman LW Nick Fossier (6 & 3, three game-winners) is next but he will be looking to snap a seven-point pointless stretch on Friday night.
Gibson and Nolan Vesey each have 3 & 4. Chase Pearson (4 & 1), Ryan Smith (2 & 3), Patrick Shea (2 & 3), Schurhamer (1 & 5) and fellow defenseman Mark Hamilton (0 & 5) have five points each.
Sophomore Rob McGovern has the nation’s 16th best save percentage (.921) to go with a 4-4-2 record and a 2.71 goals-against average.