Black Bears hope to regroup vs. Friars UMaine hopes two losses will send a message and ignite a good stretch run

ORONO – The University of Maine Black Bear hockey team is facing a crossroads in its season when it travels to Providence College for a pair of games this weekend.

Its first two-game losing streak since October, a 4-3 loss at Boston College on Friday and 5-2 setback at Merrimack College on Saturday, could act as a trigger for a regular season-ending tailspin or send a valuable message to the team that will ignite a good stretch run.

“We played awful. With the exception of our goalies, we played terrible in every aspect of the game,” said junior center Robert Liscak. “It happens. We have to learn from it. It’s better to have it happen now than later when it could cost us our season. It’s a lot easier to fix it now.”

Sophomore left winger Todd Jackson said, “Hopefully, it was a wakeup call. We can’t just show up and expect to win. Anybody can beat anybody else in this league. We have to focus on our defensive integrity. We broke down. We had lapses.”

Goalie Mike Morrison said, “We’ve overcome adversity before.”

The Black Bears allowed an uncharacteristic 67 high-percentage scoring chances in the two losses, including 35 against lowly Merrimack.

Maine had held the nation’s No. 1-ranked New Hampshire Wildcats to 29 high-percentage chances in its two-game set the previous weekend in Orono.

“I was totally disgusted with our effort against Merrimack,” said interim head coach Tim Whitehead. “We gave up 11 odd-man rushes [3-on-2s, 2-on-1s or breakaways]. That has to be a world record. That’s the most I’ve ever seen since I’ve been coaching.”

Senior defenseman and captain Peter Metcalf said, “We didn’t play with any heart.”

Morrison said one such lesson is to “stick to the game plan.”

Junior left wing Chris Heisten indicated that the Bears “thought offense too much” but their poor performance shouldn’t cause them to panic.

“It’s a long season. You’re going to lose games,” said Heisten.

On the positive side, Heisten said, “Last weekend showed that we haven’t peaked yet.”

Also on the positive side, Morrison was selected one of 12 finalists for the 50th Walter Brown Award given annually to the best American-born college hockey player in New England.

He is one of eight Hockey East players including Providence’s Jon DiSalvatore, whose parents are Bangor-area natives, Boston College’s Ben Eaves, Northeastern’s Jim Fahey and BU’s Mike Pandolfo.

“It’s a nice honor. I’ve played with or against a lot of those guys. I grew up with some of them. It’s a nice group. There are a lot of worthy recipients who aren’t even on the list. It gives me incentive to work that much harder,” added Morrison.