Analysis: UMaine hockey’s recent lackluster play is a cause for concern

Are the University of Maine’s recent struggles a cause for concern or do we figure it is just one of those stretches every team goes through during the course of a season? The team’s recent play is concerning because there isn’t just one primary issue. UMaine is in the midst of its first three-game losing streak since last season and has lost four of its last six games. During those six games, a team that had been averaging over 3 ½ goals per game has scored just 12 goals and only eight even-strength goals. A team that had been giving up fewer than 2 ½ goals per game has given up 22 goals which averages out to 3.67 per contest. A team that was among the 10th least penalized clubs among the 64 Division I teams in Division I has supplied opponents with 29 power play chances in those six games and the game-winning goals in all four losses came on the power play. UMaine has been assessed three five-minute majors and opponents scored five goals during those power plays including two game-winners. Opponents have scored eight goals overall on 29 power play chances while UMaine is 4-for-16 with the man advantage during that span and failed to convert on a five-minute power play in last Friday night’s 6-2 loss at New Hampshire. Four of UMaine’s top seven scorers are in slumps or mini-slumps. Senior center co-captain Lynden Breen, a 21-goal scorer a year ago, has gone 12 games without a goal and seven without a point. Freshman Bradly Nadeau, whose 14 goals are just one fewer than freshman team leader Josh Nadeau, his brother and linemate, has gone nine games without finding the back of the net. Junior Harrison Scott and senior Donavan Houle snapped five-game goal scoring droughts with one apiece in the 6-2 loss at UNH on Saturday night. Houle has been one of UMaine’s best players all season long but took a five-minute contact-to-the head major early and a game misconduct in the second period of Saturday’s loss at UNH and his presence was sorely missed. He received a one-game suspension from the league and will miss Friday night’s game with Northeastern. Freshman Bodie Nobes took a five-minute boarding major later in the game and UNH scored on both of the majors. Northeastern scored three power play goals on a five-minute major assessed to graduate student winger Ben Poisson. Sophomore Thomas Freel has just one assist in his last six games as does junior Nolan Renwick, who returned to the lineup six games ago after missing the previous eight games due to injury. The Black Bears have been turning pucks over and leaving shooters open in the slot while spending a lot of time in their own zone. They don’t seem to have the same energy level they had when they went 10-1-1 prior to the current 2-4 stretch. Inexperience and fatigue could be a factor. Third-year head coach Ben Barr usually has had at least 12 freshmen and sophomores among his 19 skaters and freshman Albin Boija has been seeing the majority of the time in the net of late with four consecutive starts before senior Victor Ostman got the call for Saturday’s game at UNH. The grueling schedule could be taking a toll on them. They are smaller than most of their Hockey East opponents. There is also the fact that nobody on the team, including the veterans, has been in this position before. There hasn’t been a UMaine team since the last NCAA Tournament team during the 2011-12 season that has been in this good of a position to earn one of the 16 NCAA tournament berths. UMaine, despite its recent troubles, is still seventh in the Pairwise rankings which means if the NCAA Tournament began next weekend, UMaine would be in the tourney even if the tournament champions in the six conferences were ranked below 16th in the Pairwise. The six conference tournament winners receive automatic berths and then the top 10 remaining teams in the Pairwise rankings earn at-large berths. But UMaine can’t be looking at the Pairwise rankings. The Black Bears, 18-8-2 overall and 10-7-1 in Hockey East, have to return to the form that produced a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1). They have been outplayed in their last four games but managed to squeak out a 2-1 win over Providence two weeks ago thanks to the goaltending of Boija. UNH was a desperate team that had won just two of its previous seven games and used the energy provided by its sell-out crowds to earn two deserved wins over UMaine last weekend. UNH is 11-3-1 at the Whittemore Center. UMaine has to execute all the small details that are necessary to win: finish all their checks, play fast, get the puck deep into the offensive zone, have numbers back in the defensive zone and break the puck out and return to being disciplined. Stay out of the penalty box. The third-place Black Bears have six games remaining, two-game series against teams below them in the standings and Pairwise rankings. Four of those games are at Alfond Arena where UMaine is 9-1-2 and has played in front of eight sellout crowds. They are capable of winning all six games but they could also lose all six. Northeastern (14-13-2 overall, 7-12-0 in Hockey East), which started UMaine on its downslide with a 6-3 win at Matthews Arena, comes to Orono this weekend with seven wins in its last eight games including a 4-3 overtime win over Boston University for its fifth Beanpot Tournament title in six years. Then UMaine travels to Vermont for a pair against a Catamount team (12-13-3, 6-9-3) that was picked to finish last in the Hockey East preseason coaches poll but has been better than expected. UMaine finishes up at home against UMass (16-9-3, 9-7-2), which swept the Black Bears in Orono in the season-ending regular season finale last year. Over the next three weekends, we will find out if the Black Bears are NCAA contenders or pretenders.

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Analysis: UMaine hockey’s recent lackluster play is a cause for concern

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