ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s men’s hockey team has an unfortunate distinction.
The Black Bears are the leaders among the nation’s 59 Division I teams in overtime losses with four.
The Black Bears are 1-4-2 in games that extended into the five-minute sudden-death period, and they are one of just two teams with more than two overtime losses.
The other is ECAC member St. Lawrence University, which is 1-3-2.
Maine had lost three overtime games during the previous five years combined, going 10-3-24.
Maine snapped a streak of four consecutive overtime losses with a 2-2 tie in Hartford against the University of Connecticut on Sunday afternoon.
In its previous overtime loss, at UMass Lowell on Dec. 6, Michael Louria netted the game-winner with 1:03 remaining.
Maine also lost in overtime to Boston University 3-2 on Nov. 21 on Jack Eichel’s power-play goal with 2:20 left and 4-3 on Nov. 7 to Vermont on a goal by Mike Stenerson with 1:47 remaining. The BU and Vermont games were on the road, as was the UMass Lowell setback.
All four losses came in Hockey East games, as did the lone win, 6-5, over UMass in Orono on Oct. 31. Maine had tied Alaska-Anchorage in Orono 3-3 in its first OT game.
The four overtime losses have put Maine in 10th place in Hockey East with 11 points, though seven teams are separated by just five points between fourth place Providence College and the Black Bears.
And Maine’s final four two-game series are against teams in that group: Notre Dame (15 points), Merrimack (12), Northeastern (14) and Providence (16). All of those teams have played 14 games except Northeastern, which has played 15.
“It shows that we’ve been in a lot of (close) games,” Maine junior right wing-center Steven Swavely said. “It sucks, but it is also a positive thing because we’ve lost in overtime to some great teams.”
He said the key to winning in overtime is to “tighten up in our defensive end. That will give us our offensive chances to win one.”
Junior defenseman Ben Hutton admitted the losses are frustrating.
“We’ve lost a few in the last minute,” he said. “We’ve got to keep battling and find a way to get overtime wins. We have to dig deeper; we have to be smart. We can’t give up two-on-ones or any (good) opportunities because they’ve been capitalizing on them.”
The team has to find ways to win tight games if it is going to be an excellent team down the stretch, according to senior center Stu Higgins.
“You don’t take as many chances in overtime [as you would in regulation]. Your defensemen don’t pinch in the offensive zone. For whatever reason, we haven’t been on the right side of those games,” Higgins said.
Maine head coach Red Gendron said his team is “there in terms of being close enough to succeed. The truth is, since we’ve come back from the holiday break, we’ve allowed 17 goals in 10 games after giving up over three goals a game (3.72) in the first 18 games. We’ve scored 2.9 goals per game after averaging around 2.4 (2.39) in our first 18. Our penalty-killing is over 90 percent (90.9 percent) in the last 10, and our power play is at 18 percent (17.9).”
Over the first 18 games, the power play operated at 11.6 percent efficiency and the penalty kill was at 79.4 percent.
“The bottom line is our team is getting better. But it’s not good enough. When we’ve failed to win games, it’s because we haven’t been willing to do what is required often enough or long enough. That’s our learning issue as a group. But it’s also important for our team to know we’re pretty close,” added Gendron.
Gendron noted his team is four points out of fifth place and five points out of fourth.
The top four teams in Hockey East will receive first-round byes and teams five through eight will host teams nine through 12 in a best-of-three first round series. The first-round winners travel to play the top four teams in a best-of-three before the single elimination semifinals and final at the TD Garden in Boston.
“We know we have to win to make hay and those teams (in the mix) are going to want to win for the same reason. But we control our own destiny, and this week our job is to prepare for the University of Notre Dame.”
Notre Dame, 11-14-3 overall and 6-5-3 in Hockey East, visits Maine (10-16-2, 5-8-1) for a two-game set at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Leen seeks breakout game
Senior left wing Connor Leen had a stretch earlier this season in which he scored five goals in six games.
He hasn’t scored since, a span of 13 games.
He is hoping to break out of his slump this weekend.
“When the puck isn’t going into the net for me, I try to simplify things. I have to shoot the puck more. I haven’t been getting as many shots as I was when I was scoring. That’s going to be the focus for me: shooting the puck more and getting into position to shoot,” said Leen.