ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s streaky men’s hockey team has lost three in a row after going four games without a loss (3-0-1) and opening the season with four straight losses.
One of the primary problems for the 3-7-1 Black Bears has been special teams play.
“We definitely have to sharpen up our special teams,” said UMaine captain Devin Shore. “Special teams are very important. On the penalty kill, we have to stick really tight to our system. It doesn’t matter what kind of system we use, we have to have active sticks, and we can’t allow passes that find guys who are wide open.”
Maine is ranked 39th in the country among 59 teams on the power play with a 13 percent efficiency rate (6-for-46) and 47th on the penalty kill at 77.5 percent (31-for-40).
Maine’s special teams deficiencies were accentuated in Friday night’s 3-1 loss to No. 3 Boston University as the Terriers tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal and took the lead with a shorthanded goal before adding an empty-netter.
Maine has failed to score a power-play goal in seven of its 11 games, while opponents have scored a power-play goal in eight of those 11 games, including seven of the last eight.
Opponents are 8-for-27 on the power play in those seven games. Maine did not allow a power-play goal in its 6-5 overtime win over UMass, but the Black Bears limited UMass to just one power-play chance that night.
On Ahti Oksanen’s game-tying power-play goal Friday night, he was left alone in the right faceoff circle and had a wide open net to shoot at when Evan Rodrigues fed him a cross-ice pass from the left circle.
Maine coach Red Gendron said the forward on the side furthest from the puck failed to pick up Oksanen.
“Sometimes you can get caught watching the puck. We have to be sharper on that,” said sophomore right wing Blaine Byron.
“Penalty-killing is a mindset,” said senior defenseman Jake Rutt. “We’ll look at the film, see what’s going on and correct it for next weekend.”
Maine visits Boston University and Boston College next weekend.
On the power play, Maine has converted on just one of its last 11 opportunities and is 0-for-8 in its last two games although the Black Bears generated some good chances against BU and had six shots on goal on their three power plays.
“We just have to trust the system on the power play like we do the penalty kill. We have to make simple plays and play hard,” said Shore. “We can’t get frustrated. We moved the puck pretty well against BU.”
“A lot of it is mental. Even though you have the man advantage, you still have to compete and win puck battles and outwork the other team,” said Byron.
Senior forward Connor Leen added that they have to be a “little more aware defensively” on the power play and not allow shorthanded chances such as the one that proved to be the game-winner for BU’s Danny O’Regan.
Gendron said one of his forwards didn’t come back far enough on the backcheck to cover O’Regan.
The Black Bears said there were some positives to take out of the game.
The shots were even, but Maine had an edge in Grade-A (high-percentage) scoring chances, 29-20.
“It’s extremely frustrating. We didn’t bury our chances. The bottom line is it wasn’t good enough,” said Shore. “It’s good that we were able to take the puck to their net and create scrambles. The next step is finding a way to bang it home.”
“We definitely had some chances you lose sleep over. But we’ll learn from it,” said sophomore center Cam Brown.
Leen on goal-scoring streak
Leen is in the midst of the longest goal-scoring streak of his career as he has scored a goal in each of his last three games after notching just two assists through his first seven. He missed one game because of an injury.
“He is playing really well,” said Shore. “Besides the goal he scored against BU, he was flying out there.”
Leen has been playing great, Byron said.
“He’s doing all the little things right and has been scoring some big goals for us,” he said.
“I had a lot of shots in my first seven games, but the goalies were making good saves and they weren’t falling for me,” said Leen. “If you shoot the puck a lot, I knew they would eventually have to go in.
“I’m just trying to chip in, hit some bodies. Make some plays, work hard every shift,” he added.