Sophomore defenseman Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi is expected to make his season debut this weekend when the the University of Maine men’s hockey team visits defending ECAC tournament champion Princeton University for a non-conference series on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. in New Jersey.
UMaine is 5-7-2 overall while the Tigers are 3-8-2.
Tiuraniemi, who appeared in 26 games last season, has been sidelined by an undisclosed lower-body injury but has been cleared to play for the 5-7-2 Black Bears.
The 6-foot, 181-pound native of Pietarsaari, Finland, logged three goals and five assists last season, including a goal and three assists on the power play.
He posted a power-play goal and two assists in UMaine’s Hockey East quarterfinal series at Providence.
Tiuraniemi could help jumpstart an anemic Black Bear power play that has gone 0-for-16 in the last four games and ranks 56th among 60 Division I teams (10.9 percent).
UMaine’s power play converted at 19.5 percent last winter and returned all but two members of its top two power-play units.
“(Tiuraniemi) did some nice things on the power play,” UMaine head coach Red Gendron said. “He has some really good offensive instincts and he worked real hard over the summer to improve his skating.”
Gendron isn’t sure how much he will use Tiuraniemi but said a new NCAA rule that allows teams to dress an extra skater will enable him to ease Tiuraniemi back into the lineup.
“We’ll see what happens,” Gendron said.
UMaine also regains the services of freshman right wing Adam Dawe, who missed the last three games with an upper-body injury. Dawe had three assists in 11 games and, like Tiuraniemi, plays the point on the power play.
The Princeton series will kick off a stretch of four consecutive games that will wrap up the Black Bears’ non-conference schedule. Those will be followed by 16 Hockey East games.
UMaine (3-3-2 HE) plays 10 of its final 16 league games at Alfond Arena.
UMaine hosts Colorado College of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference at 6 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2019, before taking on ECAC member Yale University in a 7 p.m. contest at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Monday, Jan. 7.
UMaine’s power play has been one of the primary contributors to its sluggish offense.
The Black Bears are averaging 2.21 goals per game which ranks 50th in the country.
Several of the forwards expected to put the puck in the net have been mired in season-long slumps although sophomore right wing Eduards Tralmaks snapped out of his with two goals in the 3-3 tie at Vermont on Dec. 1. Tralmaks, who scored 11 goals in 37 games last season, now has three.
Senior left wing Brendan Robbins, an 11-goal scorer last year, snapped a 15-game goalless famine dating back to last year on the previous night, a 2-1 UMaine overtime win at Vermont.
It is his only point this season.
Junior left wing Mitch Fossier, who led the team with 12 goals last season, has only one in 14 games, although he does have a team-high 11 assists. And sophomore left wing Emil Westerlund has one goal after scoring seven in 34 games last season.
Gendron is optimistic that his slump-riddled players will start lighting the goal lamp with more regularity.
“It’s just a matter of time before they bust out. I know they’re going to score,” Gendron said.
He also believes the power play will get untracked.
“It has been a little bit of that and a little bit of that at the wrong time. We’ve hit four or five posts and the goalies have made some great saves. We have been inches away,” Gendron said.
UMaine has held its opponents to two goals or fewer in five of its last seven games.