The University of Maine’s hockey team has an uphill climb to earn a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
Its 11-7-1 overall record and 6-5 Hockey East mark is underwhelming and has forced the Black Bears to put together a strong second half to be considered for an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament if they don’t win the Hockey East tourney.
The tournament champions in the six Division I leagues earn automatic berths to the 16-team NCAA Tournament, and the other 10 spots go to at-large teams based on a variety of things like their record and wins over highly-ranked opponents.
The second half begins this weekend when the Black Bears, ranked 15th in one poll and 18th in the other, travel to take on No. 6 Denver, 12-6-1, on Friday and Saturday nights at 9 and 8, respectively.
The biggest problem facing the Black Bears is there isn’t just one area that needs addressing in order for them to make a second-half run.
If you have one area of concern, you can devote more time to that issue in practice.
For example, if your team is having trouble scoring goals, you can try different line combinations in practice and spend extra time working on shooting, playmaking and creating a net-front presence.
Interestingly, despite losing players who scored 64 of its 124 goals last season, goal-scoring has been UMaine’s least troublesome area.
The Black Bears are tied for fifth in the nation among 63 Division I schools with a scoring average of 3.79 goals per game.
But even that has been erratic at times, as UMaine has scored four or more goals 10 times but been held to two or fewer six times including three shutouts.
That includes a dismal five goals scored in its four home losses.
Goaltending has been inconsistent and the combined .897 save percentage between junior second team All-American Albin Boija and highly-touted freshman Mathis Rousseau is only seventh-best among 11 teams in Hockey East.
Last year’s save percentage was .923. It was .903 in the 2023-24 campaign.
Any turnaround begins with goaltending and both have shown they are capable of providing the top-notch shot-stopping required.
But will they and will they receive the help they need in front of them?
That has also been an issue. Too many turnovers in critical areas and too many shooters left open in the Grade-A (high-percentage) shooting areas.
Contributing to that has also been subpar penalty-killing with a penalty-kill success rate of 79.5 percent, which is tied for just 36th nationally.
UMaine has allowed 2.58 goals per game which is 22nd.
Speaking of special teams, the power play was also below average until a recent resurgence has created optimism for the second half. UMaine has gone 6-for-14 with the man advantage in its last three games to raise its efficiency rate to 21.6 percent, 28th in the nation.
Senior left wing and co-captain Thomas Freel and junior defenseman and assistant captain Frank Djurasevic acknowledged that there are several areas that have to be cleaned up, but they are confident the team can do so and produce a strong second half.
“There isn’t one area that is really killing us, necessarily. It’s overall inconsistency in some areas,” Freel said. “Sometimes we’re clicking in one part of the game, at other times we’re not clicking in others.
“So how can we bring that altogether and be consistent on a night in and night out basis?” posed Freel. “Each and every guy isn’t going to be able to bring his A game, but can enough guys bring their A games and the rest of the guys bring their B-plus games every night, because that’s what’s going to make the difference in the second half.”
Freel said the team is battle-tested now after going through “growing pains early on” with 13 newcomers.
“So many of our games have been like playoff games and this weekend will be like a playoff weekend for us,” Freel said. “Can we bring all the elements together and perform night in and night out rather than a period here and a period there?”
Djurasevic said this Maine team is “pretty unique” and special.
“We have a lot of great hockey players and a lot of great kids. When we can put it all together, we’re a really dangerous group. The second half will be about trying to put it all together each night, starting in practice,” Djurasevic said. “Breeding those consistent habits in practice and having them trickle into the game, whether it be goal scoring, team defense or special teams. Just focus on those things in practice and do them to the best of our ability.
“You’re not worried about one specific thing, you’re worried about the whole process and trying to put it all together for the game,” Djurasevic continued. “Kind of making sure each player is taking care of their own thing to make sure we all feel great come game time and, hopefully, those things stack up to a process win.”
UMaine has shown it is certainly capable of being an NCAA Tournament team with impressive wins over UMass (6-2), Vermont (7-0) and Boston College (3-0).
The question is, can the Black Bears develop the overall consistency necessary to have a memorable second half. This weekend’s series against Denver will provide an early answer.