One of the issues that has plagued the University of Maine during its 10-year NCAA Tournament drought has been inconsistent goaltending.
The one obvious exception has been All-American and current Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who was a Hobey Baker finalist his junior year and won the Mike Richter Award given to the nation’s best goaltender.
He was the only goalie during that decade-long drought that received any postseason award.
If you couple inconsistent goaltending with teams that have struggled to score goals, it’s easy to see why the Black Bears haven’t been to the Hockey East semifinals or the NCAA Tournament since the 2011-12 campaign.
The jury is out on this year’s goaltending, although junior Victor Ostman appears as though he has made significant strides.
With the exception of one outing, the 6-2 loss to Quinnipiac, Ostman has been steady — and at times superb.
Even with the six goals allowed against Quinnipiac, he has an impressive 2.21 goals-against average and .921 save percentage, both ranking him 23rd in the country among 60 Division I teams.
If you eliminate the Quinnipiac loss, he has a 1.26 GAA and a .961 save percentage.
Clarkson University transfer Jacob Mucitelli was solid in a 4-1 win over the Air Force Academy but struggled in his next two outings, allowing four goals on 20 shots in a 5-1 loss to Bentley and three goals on 18 shots in Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Northeastern.
He was pulled in the second period in both games.
That’s not to say Mucitelli isn’t capable of getting on a hot streak. He also looked sharp in the 1-0 exhibition win over the University of Prince Edward Island.
But he needs to be better.
In the Northeastern game, the first two goals would have been difficult for any goalie to save, especially when the goal scorer was Aidan McDonough, who scored 25 goals a year ago and now has six this season.
But the third goal was a back-breaker and came on a Matt Choupani wrist shot from the high slot that caught Mucitelli by surprise and squeezed between his pads.
UMaine had rallied from a 2-0 deficit the previous night to earn a 2-2 tie before winning the shootout but a 3-0 deficit is difficult especially against a team like Northeastern that was the preseason pick to defend its Hockey East title.
Unfortunately for UMaine’s goalies, their margin of error is smaller than most.
The team has averaged only 2.14 goals per game, 45th in the country, so until their teammates start putting in the net with more frequency, any soft goals could be decisive.
It has been that way for virtually all of the past 10 years.
The Black Bears did everything they could to crawl back into the game, including a 21-shot second-period barrage that saw pucks sitting around the crease time and time again as UMaine swarmed the net looking to follow up Nolan Renwick’s goal with another one.
But 2021-22 Richter Award winner Devon Levi was stout and his defensemen were able to get their bodies and sticks in the way to help him out.
UMaine finished with a 36-27 edge in shots but Northeastern’s 12 NHL draft picks means the Huskies have more skill and more goal scorers. They are better equipped to capitalize on their chances.
There won’t be any teams outworking the Black Bears this season, but in addition to receiving consistent goaltending, they have to eliminate multi-goal lapses.
UMaine has given up back-to-back goals within 2:22 of each other four times already this season. They gave up three in a span of 2:48 in the loss to Northeastern.
UMaine is facing a tough stretch of games in which it plays its next six conference games on the road at nationally ranked UConn, along with Merrimack and Vermont.
Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe and captain McDonough have noticed a significant improvement in the Black Bears as others have mentioned before.
“Maine has a good team this year. I like the way they play, the way they keep coming. They are a good forecheck team and this rink with their team is going to make it tough for teams who come up here,” Keefe said.
“They’re a lot better than last year, for sure,” said McDonough. “They compete really hard. They play that 1-3-1 in the neutral zone that is tough to get through. They’re physical and playing up here isn’t easy as well.”