Ben Barr has seen it before.
The third-year head coach of the University of Maine men’s hockey team was an assistant at five Division I schools before coming to Orono and was involved with teams that were on a roll only to hit a speed bump and have to find a way to get back into the win column.
His current situation is a little different.
This UMaine team has a legitimate chance to earn the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2011-12.
The only other UMaine team that had a chance of getting into the NCAA tourney field was the 2019-20 squad which was 18-11-5 thanks to Mike Richter Award winner (nation’s best goalie) Jeremy Swayman. Those Black Bears were about to host UConn in a best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series when Covid-19 shut down the season.
But that team needed to at least win a tournament series to have a chance to get in.
A strong regular season finish by Barr’s current team could all but ensure an NCAA berth.
Barr knows it won’t be easy. UMaine has three straight losses for the first time since the end of last season and just two wins in its last six games following a 10-1-1 stretch.
The Black Bears are currently 18-8-2 overall and 10-7-1 in Hockey East which is good enough for third place.
UMaine will entertain a surging Northeastern University team that has won seven of its last eight this weekend. Puck drop will be at 7 on Friday and Saturday nights.
“The truth is we managed to avoid a losing streak until now, which is great. So how do we get out of it?,” Barr said. “That’s the challenge and that’s what we have to do together. We’re in it deep right now. It’s not going to get any easier. No team is going to play poorly and let you win a game for the rest of the year.”
Barr said the Black Bears aren’t built like most teams in Hockey East.
“We’re playing teams that are excellent every night. We’re a team whose sum is better than its parts. We’re a team-team. We can’t just have two or three players going (well), we have to have all 20 players going every night.
“If we don’t, that’s when things get sideways a little bit,” he said.
Barr said the effort has been there and thought his team played “very well” against a very good Providence College team in a home split two weekends ago and it “wasn’t terrible” in the two losses at New Hampshire last weekend although “I didn’t like us much on Friday.
“We shot ourselves in the foot by taking two five-minute majors.
“We’re playing hard but we aren’t putting it all together right now,” he said.
He said they have to return to an underdog mentality.
“We were picked to finish ninth (in the Hockey East preseason poll). Those things don’t mean anything but that’s where the other coaches saw us. It’s not like we’re here saying ‘We’ve been a top 10 team all year and we’re fine now.
“We have to have the same mentality we had last year and before we played any games this year. We’ve gotten away from that a little bit,” Barr said. “You’re seeing that with the uncharacteristic penalties we’ve been taking.
“It’s like we’re saying ‘Don’t hit me, we’re good now. Leave me alone.’ And that’s not us,” Barr said. “It’s going to be a grind every single night and we have to embrace it rather than being frustrated by it.”
Some of his leading scorers are in slumps and Barr said it is important for them to simplify their games.
“If you’re struggling, don’t complicate it by trying to do stupid things. None of our guys have been through this before. So how do we react? We have Friday night to begin working our way back. That’s the beauty of it,” he said.
He is encouraged by the fact his team has a high character level.
“That’s what we have to rely on. They know what we did in November isn’t good enough today. We have to be better than that,” Barr said.
He said they also have to deal with the expectations that go with playing for a program that has two NCAA titles, 11 Frozen Four appearances and 18 NCAA Tournament berths.
“There is more attention (on our program) here than any other team in our league,” said Barr who stressed that the team needs to focus solely on Friday night’s game.
“If we think about trying to win four of our last six, we’ll never get out of this. We’ll never win another game,” Barr said.
The Black Bears continue to be led by freshman brothers Josh and Bradly Nadeau. Josh has 15 goals and 22 assists and Bradly has 14 & 22. Senior co-captain Lynden Breen has 6 & 18.
Breen hasn’t scored a goal in 12 games and is without a point in seven and Bradly Nadeau has gone nine games without a goal. Brandon Chabrier is the top point-getter among defensemen with 6 & 14. In goal, freshman Albin Boija is 5-3-1 with a 2.00 goals against average and a .917 save percentage while senior Victor Ostman is 13-5-1 with a 2.79 GAA and a .894 save percentage.
The Huskies, 14-3-2 overall and 7-12-0 in Hockey East, are 4-0-1 against UMaine in the last five meetings including a 6-3 win in Boston on Feb. 2. NU is 12-1-1 vs. UMaine over the last 14 meetings.
NU’s leading scorers are Jack Williams from Biddeford (16 & 17), Alex Campbell (16 & 15) and Justin Hryckowian (8 & 22). Vinny Borgesi (3 & 22) leads the defense corps in front of freshman goalie Cameron Whitehead (14-11-2, 2.64, .915).
