ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team remains encouraged as it prepares for the final stretch of 14 Hockey East games after Friday night’s exhibition game against the United States National Team Development Program’s Under-18 squad.
The Black Bears absorbed a frustrating 6-4 loss to archrival New Hampshire last Friday night at Manchester, New Hampshire, despite outshooting the Wildcats 37-25.
UMaine (7-10-3, 1-6-1 HE) has strung together four games in which it has scored 19 goals and produced a power play that has converted on 10 of 22 chances, an eye-opening 45.5 percent. Meanwhile, the Black Bears have given the opposition only 15 power-play opportunities — and five goals.
In the four games, UMaine sandwiched 4-3 and 6-4 losses to UNH around a pair of wins over American International College of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Schurhamer said the UNH loss last Friday night was “same story … self-inflicting wounds at times.”
“It’s frustrating in a sense that we all know we played well, but there were little things that we have to tidy up,” he said.
He said it is up to them to find different ways to earn victories as they try to climb out of the Hockey East cellar.
“Good teams find a way to win. We’re playing good hockey, but we’re not doing what the game calls for in order for us to win. Everybody in the locker room is optimistic. We know the talent we have. We know we can be a good team down the stretch. We’ve just got to put it together, get things turned around and do it really soon,” said Schurhamer.
“We have to be good for 60 minutes in all aspects of the game,” said junior center Cedric Lacroix. “All it takes is a couple of critical mistakes that the opposing team can capitalize on. That turns a win into a loss.
“Every detail matters,” he added.
The Black Bears are looking forward to the exhibition game and said that contest and the two weeks of practice and weight-room training leading up to the Jan. 12 contest at the University of Connecticut will be beneficial.
“The game should be fun. Hopefully, some guys will gain some confidence. But we can’t look past them,” said Schurhamer.
“It will give the coach [Red Gendron] an opportunity to play around with the lines, try some different things and evaluate the players,” said Lacroix.