A look at the Hockey East standings reveals that the University of Maine’s hockey team is closer to last place than fourth place. And the fourth place spot is important, because it earns that team a first-round bye and the final home ice berth for the league tournament quarterfinals.
Heading into the weekend series at UMass Lowell, the 17th-ranked Black Bears have lost four of their last five conference games and six of their last eight. UMaine is 12-9-2 overall and 6-7-0 in league play.
Puck drop is 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday at Tsongas Arena.
The Black Bears are in seventh place in the conference with 16 points. They are six points behind Northeastern and Boston College, who are tied for fourth, and just three points clear of last-place Merrimack.
Teams receive three points for a regulation win; two for an overtime or shootout win and one for an overtime or shootout loss.
UMass Lowell, 9-14-0 and 5-8-0, is in a three-way tie with New Hampshire and UMass for eighth and just one point behind UMaine.
UMaine, seeking a third straight NCAA Tournament berth, is 26th in the NPI rankings which emulate the selection process for the 16-team NCAA tourney. UML is 49th.
“I haven’t even looked at the standings,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “All that stuff is secondary. We’re so far away from thinking about the NCAA Tournament.
“Every game is a playoff game the rest of the way. We created that situation for ourselves and, you know what, we’ve got to deal with it,” said the fifth-year head coach.
The Black Bears will be without junior right wing Josh Nadeau, who will be sidelined for a few weeks with an undisclosed illness, according to Barr.
Nadeau, a former Hockey East third team selection, is third on the team in points with 17 in 21 games and second in goals with 10.
“Josh has been a good player for us,” Barr said. “Now somebody is going to get a chance to get more ice time or get into the lineup and it’s up to them to do something with it.”
The defending Hockey East tournament champion Black Bears didn’t play last weekend after getting swept at Providence College the previous weekend.
Barr said his team has had a “pretty good” practice week and said the Black Bears have to be better in “every aspect” of the game in moving forward.
“And that starts with being better culturally,” Barr said.
The coach noted that things seem to be good for the Black Bears when they score the first goal or two, but when they don’t get those early goals, it gets a little harder for them and they tend to fall apart.
“That is breaking, mentally, and is what we’re trying to eliminate from our game,” he added. “We are working on the ice but we’re also trying to improve our mental capabilities as well.”
The Black Bears enter the series with an eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1) against the River Hawks including a 5-4 overtime win in Portland on Dec. 10 in which they overcame three one-goal deficits.
“They’re a very good team,” Barr said. “They kicked the crap out of us but our special teams won us the game with three power play goals.”
Statistically, UMaine is 10th in the country in scoring averaging 3.52 goals per game while UML is 51st with 2.43 goals per game. They are close, defensively, with UMaine allowing 2.74 goals to UML’s 2.91.
The power plays are close with UMaine holding a slight edge with a 19.8 percent success rate to UML’s 19.1. But the River Hawks have been much better on the penalty kill at 82 percent to UMaine’s 76.1, which is 51st.
“They’re a big, heavy team and if we’re afraid of that or afraid to stick our nose in it or play along the walls or in the corners, we’re going to spend a lot of time chasing the game around,” Barr said. “We have an opportunity to try to find some desperation and bring it back again on the positive side.”
UMaine, which has scored only four goals in its last three games including just one in its two games at Providence, continues to be led in scoring by freshman left wing Justin Poirier (17 goals, 11 assists) along with senior defenseman Brandon Holt (5 & 15), freshman right wing Miguel Marques (6 & 10), senior left wing Owen Fowler (7 & 6) and junior center Max Scott (3 & 10). Fowler scored the game-winner in Portland against his former team.
Junior Albin Boija (8-6-2 record, 2.58 goals-against average, .899 save percentage) and freshman Mathis Rousseau (4-3, 2.80, .893) have shared the goaltending duties of late for UMaine.
UMass Lowell, which has split five of its six league series, features senior center Dillan Bentley (10 & 7), linemate and graduate student center Jay Ahearn (9 & 5), junior center Jak Vaarwerk (5 & 8), freshman center Dalyn Wakely (5 & 8) and senior defenseman T.J. Schweighardt (2 & 9). Freshman Austin Elliott (6-9-0, 2.74, .896) and senior Samuel Richard (3-5, 2.57, .911) have been the goaltending tandem.