Entering this season, the question surrounding the University of Maine’s hockey team was could it score enough goals to earn a second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and, perhaps, make a deeper run in the tournament after getting bounced by Cornell in the first round a year ago?
After the team averaged four goals per game before the holiday break, it appeared as though the answer was yes.
But in the seven games since the break, UMaine has scored only 14 goals, and one of them was an empty-netter that secured a 3-1 win at UMass Lowell.
Following an underwhelming performance against a youthful University of Connecticut team this past weekend, which saw the Black Bears absorb a 4-2 loss and then wind up with a 2-2 tie, the question concerning goal production has resurfaced.
UMaine has gone just 3-3-1 in those seven games after a 10-2-2 start.
Losing graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen to a broken fibula in a 6-0 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Nov. 30 has certainly factored into it.
Breen, who scored a total of 30 goals over the previous two seasons, had gotten off to a sluggish start but had come out of it in his last three games, scoring four goals and picking up three assists.
He is also an inspirational leader with his grit and work ethic. He plays much bigger than his 5-foot-9, 180-pound frame, and he plays in all situations.
UMaine was 9-2-2 with him in the lineup, with the only losses coming to current No. 1 Boston College. The Black Bears are 6-3-1 without him.
But every team sustains injuries, especially in contact sports like hockey.
You have to find a way to fill that void until the player returns, if they return at all.
The good news is Breen is hoping to be back sometime in February, which would certainly give the Black Bears a significant boost.
The problem for a team that is in a scoring slump is that it puts added importance and pressure on special teams play, team defense and goaltending.
If you aren’t scoring, you have to limit the opponents’ goal production to give yourself a chance to win.
UMaine has done that for the most part, allowing 15 goals over the last seven games.
Goalie Albin Boija has helped bail them out like he did stopping all three shots in the shootout in Saturday’s tie and shootout with UConn, which earned the Black Bears an extra point in the Hockey East standings.
However, even Bouja didn’t have his best weekend because both first goals scored by the Huskies were soft as they came on unscreened wrists shots that he would normally save.
But the Black Bears made several costly mistakes in the series against a UConn team that turned in a quality performance each night.
In the 4-2 loss Friday, the Black Bears allowed a two-on-one rush that resulted in a goal by Joey Muldowney and then left Muldowney all alone in the middle of the slot for his game-winner in the third period. Muldowney scored all four goals.
On Saturday night, UMaine had rallied to take a 2-1 lead in the third period and was doing an effective job protecting the lead when Ross Mitton took an ill-advised five-minute major and game misconduct for a contact to the head hit with just 3:01 left.
You can’t take penalties in that situation, especially a five-minute major.
Mitton was suspended for a game by the league on Monday.
UConn eventually pulled goalie Callum Tung for the extra attacker, and, for the second time this season, UMaine allowed an extra attacker goal that resulted in the 2-2 tie. This time it was a six-on-four while the tie against Boston University in November was six-on-five.
To their credit, the Black Bears killed the remainder of the penalty, which spilled over into overtime, to help earn the tie.
UMaine also allowed a game-winning goal for Denver earlier this month with 20 seconds left.
The late goals from BU, Denver and UConn all came off wrist shots from the midpoint. The BU wrister produced a rebound for the tying goal; the Denver shot went in off a UMaine shinguard for the winner; and the UConn shot was tipped in by a teammate.
Losing defensive zone faceoffs and not getting out to block or prevent the defenseman from taking a shot from the midpoint were two glaring mistakes on all three goals.
Shots from the midpoint are more dangerous than the ones taken from the left or right point, according to UMaine head coach Ben Barr.
There are a number of UMaine’s top nine point-producing forwards who continue to struggle offensively.
Sully Scholle hasn’t scored a goal in 18 games; last year’s second-leading scorer, Josh Nadeau, doesn’t have a goal or an assist in the last seven, which is four games longer than his longest pointless stretch last year; and Mitton and Owen Fowler have each gone nine games without a goal.
Second-leading scorer Charlie Russell ended an eight-game goalless drought on Friday night but also sustained an injury and missed Saturday’s game.
Taylor Makar snapped a seven-game goalless drought on Saturday.
These forwards have contributed in other areas, including assists, but not in the goal scoring column.
Harrison Scott and Nolan Renwick are the only forwards with more than one goal during the current seven-game stretch as Scott has five of the 14 goals and Renwick has two. Defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale also has two.
UMaine has averaged 34.9 shots on goal over the seven games while opponents are averaging 23.7 shots.
The special teams play has also been poor of late.
UMaine is just 3-for-22 on the power play, including a 1-for-15 showing in the last five, while the opponents have converted 5 of their 17 chances in the seven games.
And UMaine is just 1-2-1 in its last four at Alfond Arena after going 8-0-1 in its previous nine.
UMaine has next weekend off before beginning its final 11-game stretch of Hockey East games.
The bottom line is that this team has overachieved to be 15-5-3 at this point, 7-3-3 in the conference, and ranked sixth in the Pairwise Rankings that mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process. UMaine is ranked sixth in one national poll and seventh in the other.
UMaine has middle-of-the-pack talent, but it wins with goaltending, a veteran defense corps, depth, work ethic and timely goal scoring.
UMaine has allowed the second-fewest goals per game (1.78) among 64 Division I schools.
The Black Bears will need to iron out some things, maybe tweak the line combinations, over the next two weeks before hosting Northeastern on Jan. 31 and UMass on Feb. 2.
They have put themselves in good position to return to the NCAA Tournament, but there is still a lot of work to do to accomplish it, especially on the offensive side of the puck.
