Resiliency.
It is something every successful team has.
It’s the ability to overcome adversity.
When the nationally-ranked University of Maine men’s hockey team took the ice at the Mullins Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst on Saturday night, it was looking to bounce back from a 6-3 loss at Northeastern the previous evening.
The Black Bears had surrendered five third-period goals at Northeastern with three coming on a five-minute power play. The last one was an empty-netter.
UMaine took a 2-1 lead into the third period against Northeastern and had been 12-0 when leading after two periods this season. It should be noted that Northeastern’s Matthews Arena has been a den of horrors for the Black Bears, who haven’t won there since Feb. 25, 2012. The winless streak there is now at 16 games (0-14-2).
A loss like that could have carried over to the next night, especially when you consider the Black Bears were playing a nationally ranked UMass team that was 8-2-2 at home and was playing on a rink that is 10 feet wider than UMaine’s Alfond Arena.
But UMaine went out and held the Minutemen to just 15 shots on goal, half as many as they had averaged at the Mullins Center (30.2) entering the game, and earned a 1-0 victory.
Freshman goalie Albin Boija picked up UMaine’s first shutout victory of the season and dealt UMass its first shutout loss.
The UMaine coaching staff will have an interesting goaltending decision this weekend against nationally-ranked Providence.
Freshman Boija hasn’t allowed more than two goals in any of his seven appearances including five starts. He has a 1.33 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage to go with a 4-1-1 record on the season.
Reigning All-Hockey East second team goalie Victor Ostman has allowed 14 goals in his last four starts and has a 2.66 GAA and a .897 save percentage. But he also has 13 wins along with four losses and a tie and turned in some gems.
He has the nation’s third-best winning percentage (.750) among goalies at 64 Division I schools.
Ostman has been starting the first game of weekend series with Boija playing the second game.
But with Boija coming off a shutout, it might be time to start him in the first game and go with the hot hand and have Ostman play game two.
If Boija tosses another shutout or stands out in a win, they could consider starting him in the second game.
Ostman’s teammates didn’t play very well in front of him at Northeastern and he has shown his own resiliency in the past, bouncing back from tough outings with a solid performance.
The Black Bears showed more than good goaltending against UMass. After allowing three power play goals against Northeastern, UMaine killed all three UMass power plays.
UMaine is 17-5-2 overall and 9-4-1 in Hockey East. The Black Bears dropped from fifth and sixth in the two national polls to seventh but, more importantly, moved up from fifth to fourth in the Pairwise Rankings which mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process.
The Pairwise Rankings have a similar DNA to Maine’s Heal Points standings for seeding high school teams in different sports. Wins over good teams and a strong strength of schedule are rewarded.
UMaine has a 5-3-1 record against teams currently ranked in the top 20 in the two polls including a victory and a tie against No. 1 Boston College and a win (as well as a loss) vs. No. 5 Quinnipiac.
The Black Bears remained in third place in Hockey East with 28 points in 14 conference games. They are nine behind second-place Boston College, which has played 16 games, and 10 behind leader Boston University, which has played 17 games.
Teams receive three points for a regulation win; two for an overtime or shootout win and one for an overtime or shootout loss.
This coming weekend’s series against Providence (10th in one poll, 13th in the other) has huge playoff implications.
The Friars of former UMaine and Old Town High School assistant coach Nate Leaman are just two points behind UMaine in fourth place. Providence has played one more game than UMaine.
The teams that finish in the top five in Hockey East avoid playing a preliminary round game and the top four will host a quarterfinal round game for the right to advance to the semifinals at TD Garden in Boston.
The fourth-place team will host the fifth-seeded team in the quarterfinals while the top three seeds will await the outcome of the preliminary round games with the top seed entertaining the lowest seeded survivor and so on.