ORONO – It was back to the drawing board for the University of Maine men’s hockey team Tuesday as the Bears prepare for a three-games-in-nine-days stretch beginning Friday night at Providence College.

The Bears have lost two in a row and have hit a mini-scoring drought.

They have been held to two goals or less in three of their last three four Hockey East games, including 2-1 home losses to Boston University and Vermont. Excluding its 9-2 win at UMass Lowell, Maine has scored only seven goals in its four other most recent league games.

The Bears are 1-3 in those games and have fallen to 9-4 overall, 4-3 in Hockey East.

The Sunday loss to Vermont left a sour taste in their mouths because they weren’t able to penetrate what coach Tim Whitehead refers to as the “third circle.”

That is an imaginary circle between the face-off circles just beyond the top of the crease.

“We had a lack of focus,” said Maine senior center-left wing Derek Damon. “We stayed to the perimeter. We didn’t drive to the net. We made it pretty easy for the goalie [Travis Russell] to make those [29] saves.

“Any goalie in college hockey is going to make saves when the shots are from the outside and no one is driving to the net to push him back into his crease,” added Damon. “That’s the upsetting part. We didn’t work hard enough to get to the goal. Most of the goals you’re going to score are going to come right in front off rebounds and we’re not doing that right now.”

Junior center Michel Leveille said, “We need to drive to the net more consistently, make sure we get pucks to the net and take the goalies’ eyes away. They were all collapsing in front of their net and we were staying on the perimeter. That’s not the way we’re going to win games.

“It’s kind of frustrating because you feel like you controlled the puck the entire game. Basically, it’s what they want you to do. They just want you to stay on the perimeter and that’s what we ended up doing Sunday afternoon. When you think about it, if you can get a couple guys in the middle of them, they’re going to get all screwed up. That’s what we didn’t do and that’s why we lost the game,” Leveille added.

Damon said the Bears have to do a better job winning face-offs. Vermont won 32 to Maine’s 29.

“We have a lot of depth at center and we should win 70 percent of our draws. We haven’t been doing that,” said Damon. “We aren’t bearing down and focusing in on that enough. We have to address that this weekend.”

Leveille said despite the scoring famine, it’s too soon to push the panic button.

“It’s still early in the season. Our goal is to be hot at the end of the year. It’s just a good thing we’re all aware of it so that way we can work on it and improve and be able to do it consistently at the end of the year,” said Leveille.

Whitehead said his team can’t be two-dimensional, they have to be three-dimensional.

“We have to score on the power play, on the rush and in transition and we have to manufacture ugly goals,” said Whitehead. “Goals are tough to come by. That was a lesson re-learned again on Sunday.”

Whitehead also said his players need to put their shots “on the [goalie’s] inside pad. We put too many shots on the outside pad [nearest the post] and that is very easy for the goalie to control.”

He said shooting low and toward the inside pad would have resulted in more rebounds and, if the Bears had driven the net, it would have required Russell to make second and third saves, which he rarely had to make Sunday.

The line featuring brothers Keenan and John Hopson along with left wing Billy Ryan has been Maine’s most consistent, according to Whitehead, and it will remain together. He said he would juggle the other three lines from Sunday’s lineup.

3 Bears named All-New England

University of Maine seniors Jermaine Walker, Ben Lazarski and Jarrod Gomes were named to the New England Football Writers I-AA All-Star Team on Tuesday.

They will be honored with the other members at the annual NEFW Captains and Awards banquet on Thursday, Dec. 8, in Randolph, Mass.

Center Lazarski is a repeat selection, one of just five players on offense to be named to the team twice during his career. The All-Atlantic 10 first-team choice started all 11 games this season and helped Montell Owens rush for 779 yards and nine touchdowns.

Inside linebacker Walker, who also was an All-Atlantic 10 first-teamer, was fourth in the Atlantic 10 in tackles with a career-high 114. He had 9.5 tackles for losses including 3.5 sacks; three pass break-ups, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble. He also blocked a kick and had an interception, as well as a 14-tackle game in the opener against Nebraska.

Free safety Gomes had 68 tackles, including 48 solos, recovered two fumbles and had a pair of interceptions.

He had 11 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery in a 27-24 overtime win over Rhode Island on Nov. 12.

He was chosen an A-10 second-teamer.

Players were selected from the 10 I-AA schools across New England encompassing the A-10, Ivy and Patriot leagues.