The University of Maine’s fifth-ranked hockey team will be looking to get its struggling power play back on track when it takes on seventh-ranked Providence College on Friday and Saturday nights at Schneider Arena in Providence.
Puck drop will be at 7 p.m. on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday.
UMaine is 17-5-3 overall and 9-3-3 in Hockey East while Providence is 16-6-4 and 6-5-4, respectively.
UMaine is fourth in the Pairwise Rankings which mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process, and Providence is tied for sixth with UConn.
Hockey East has six teams among the top 10 in the Pairwise rankings. Along with UMaine, Providence and UConn, the other three are Boston College (1), Boston University (8) and UMass Lowell (tied for 10th).
UMaine’s power play has been in a 3-for-29 funk (10.3 percent efficiency) with the man advantage in its nine games since the Christmas break. That includes a 1-for-22 showing over the last seven games.
And it will loom large this weekend because goals in this series have been hard to come by in recent years.
Seven of the last 10 meetings between UMaine and Providence, which have been split 5-5, have produced five goals or less between the two teams.
Eight of the 10 games were decided by one goal, including two in overtime.
“We’ve got to go back to basics (on the power play),” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “We have to win faceoffs and (puck) battles. We haven’t been retrieving pucks.”
Junior defenseman Brandon Holt concurred.
“We have to keep it simple. Get pucks to the net and win the battles in front of the net,” said Holt.
“We have to play free and with confidence and swagger,” said senior center and leading scorer Harrison Scott.
Junior defenseman Brandon Chabrier said the power play game plans mapped out by assistant coach Jason Fortier have been good, “but we haven’t been executing.”
“Special teams are going to come into play, for sure,” said Providence head coach Nate Leaman, a former UMaine and Old Town High School assistant coach. “Those are areas you have to be good at.”
UMaine comes into the series with a 23 percent success rate on the power play, 16th best in the country among 64 Division I schools.
Black Bear Junior left wing Thomas Freel is tied for second in the country with eight power play goals and linemate Scott is tied for sixth with six.
Providence is 46th-best on the power play at 17.5 percent.
Logan Will and Hudson Malinoski top the Friars in power play goals with three apiece.
UMaine may be able to exploit Providence’s penalty-killing units as the Friars’ 79 percent efficiency showing on the penalty kill is only 39th.
UMaine is eighth-best on the penalty kill, posting an 84.8 percent success rate.
And UMaine has scored five shorthanded goals, tied for sixth in the nation.
Junior center Owen Fowler has two shorthanded goals and had his bid for a third rejected by UMass goalie Michael Hrabal, who stopped his breakaway in the second period of Sunday’s 3-2 victory.
Leaman doesn’t expect the series to be high-scoring.
“Maine doesn’t give up much and when they do, they have a good goaltender,” Leaman said about UMaine goalie Albin Boija.
UMaine is currently giving up just 1.76 goals per game, which is third in the country and ties for the best mark through the first 25 games of a season in program history, dating back to the 1977-78 season.
Boija’s 1.62 goals-against average is second best.
Providence is tied for 16th, allowing 2.42 goals per contest.
UMaine is giving up just 22.8 shots on goal per game which is No. 1 in the country.
Despite scoring only 20 goals in its last nine games, UMaine is still 12th nationally with its 3.36 goals per game average. Providence is tied for 25th with 3.0 goals per game.
The series will involve two hard-working teams that finish all of their checks and swarm the puck. It will be a physical series.
“It will come down to winning all the little (puck) battles and staying patient in a series that requires you to stay patient,” said Leaman.
“Providence has a lot of skill, more than they’ve had the past couple of years,” said Barr. “It’s going to be a tough test.”
Leaman said the UMaine players “work their tails off and like to play north (straight ahead). They clog up the neutral zone. They’re hard to play against.”
Barr was an assistant coach under Leaman at Union College for three years and for three more at Providence.
“I learned a lot from Nate. He is one of the most detailed coaches in the country,” said Barr.
“And who did I learn that from?” chuckled Leaman, referring to late UMaine head coach Shawn Walsh, whom he coached under.
Leaman said it doesn’t surprise him that Barr led UMaine to its first Hockey East semifinal and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011-12 a year ago and has his team in good position to make it two NCAAs in a row.
“It doesn’t surprise anybody,” said Leaman.
Leaman said his Friars are in the middle of a stretch where they are playing 11 games in a row against top 10 teams.
“I’ve never been a part of something like that as a coach,” said Leaman.
The Friars will be bolstered by the return from injury of Vegas Golden Knights first round draft pick Trevor Connelly, a forward who has notched 3 goals and 8 assists in 15 games, and New York Islanders seventh round pick Tomas Machu (1 goal, 3 assists in 19 games), a defenseman.
UMaine is hoping to regain the services of winger and third-leading scorer Charlie Russell from an injury. He missed the last three games and has 5 goals, 14 assists in 22 games.
Scott continues to lead the Black Bears in scoring with 15 goals and 13 assists. Left wing Taylor Makar, who has a three-game goal-scoring streak, has 10 and 10 and defensemen Frank Djurasevic (5 & 13) and Holt (3 & 15) are tied for fourth.
Will (8 & 12), Tanner Adams (10 & 7), John Mustard (6 & 10), Malinoski (7 & 8), and Will Elger (7 & 8) have paced the Friars. Phillip Svedeback (11-4-3, 2.39 goals-against average, .915 save percentage) and Zachary Borgiel (5-2-1, 2.15, .931) have shared the goaltending for Providence.
