With a precious Hockey East first-round bye and potential quarterfinal host bid on the line, the University of Maine’s struggling ninth-ranked hockey team will travel to the University of Vermont for a two-game set against a Catamount team that is also on a recent slide.
Game times on Friday and Saturday nights are at 7.
UMaine, 19-9-2 overall and 11-8-1 in Hockey East, is clinging to third place just two points ahead of Providence and three in front of UMass, which will invade Orono for a season-ending two-game set in two weekends.
The top four finishers earn first-round byes for the Hockey East playoffs and will host a quarterfinal round game. The fifth-place team also earns a first-round bye but will travel to play the fourth-place team in the quarterfinals.
The bottom six finishers will square off in the first round with the sixth, seventh and eighth place teams hosting.
UMaine has lost four of its last five and five of its last eight while UVM, 12-15-3 overall and 6-11-3 in league play, has just one win in its last seven games (1-4-2).
The Black Bear players know what it’s going to take to break out of their funk.
“We have to get back to playing like we did in the first half. We have to outwork teams. We have drifted away from that a little bit,” said senior right wing Donavan Houle.
Junior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale concurred.
“We have to get back to our identity of being the hardest working team on the ice, no matter who we’re playing, what we’re going up against or what the score is,” said Breazeale. “We can’t let anything like that faze us and we need to continue to grow.”
Breazeale said they have been playing “really good teams” and noted that every Hockey East weekend is a battle.
“There are going to be ups and downs during the season. You can’t start doubting yourself,” said Breazeale. “That’s the big thing.
“We have belief in our locker room, the coaches have belief in us and we feel the belief from the community as well. We just have to ride that and keep going,” Breazeale.
Junior center Harrison Scott said it’s a matter of being willing to do “all the little things, no matter how hard it is. And we have to air it all out for 120 minutes this weekend.”
One of the issues in the 5-1 win and 4-0 loss at home last weekend was blocked shots.
The Huskies blocked 37 UMaine shots in the two games including 20 in their win.
“We have to create more shooting lanes,” said Breazeale. “We have to be more mobile when we have the opportunity to be. Having shots blocked is deflating for a team.
“As a defense corps, we have to take a step and it starts with me as a leader,” Breazeale said. “You have to establish your feet early so when you get the puck, you’re allowing yourself to move and be creative.
“You have to trust your feet and your shot and also trust your forwards at the net front that they will get secondary opportunities,” he added.
UMaine third-year head coach Ben Barr said they may have won games earlier this season they didn’t deserve to win but they were bailed out by some big-time performances from goaltenders Victor Ostman and Albin Boija and players like the freshman Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh.
“We are getting taught lessons. We have to work through it, learn from it and change it. It’s on us to change it. The question is how fast can we pull out of it?,” said the UMaine coach.
Two of UMaine’s three leading scorers, freshman left wing Bradly Nadeau and senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen, snapped goal-scoring droughts of nine and 12 games, respectively, in the 5-1 win over Northeastern.
The Nadeau brothers are tied for 13th in the country in points per game with 1.3 as Bradly has 16 goals and 23 assists in 30 games and Josh has 15 & 24 in 30. Breen now has 7 goals and 19 assists. Sophomore Brandon Chabrier has 20 points on 6 goals and 14 assists to lead the defense corps in scoring and Boija, who has emerged as the No. 1 goalie, has a 2.09 goals-against average which is seventh best among goalies at 64 Division I schools.
He also has a 6-4-1 record and a .916 save percentage.
The Catamounts have been led by Jens Richards (10 & 9), defenseman and Northeastern University transfer Jeremie Bucheler (6 & 11), Canisius transfer Ryan Miotto (9 & 5) and Timofei Spitserov (6 & 6). Senior goalie Gabe Carriere has a 12-13-3 record, a 2.74 GAA and a .909 save percentage. He has played in 85 career games for the Catamounts.
UVM is coached by University of Southern Maine graduate and former Huskies hockey captain Steve Wiedler, who had begun the season as the interim after replacing the fired Todd Woodcroft, but recently was named the head coach and signed a four-year contract extension.