Black Bears on roll heading into tournament

On Jan. 20, the University of Maine’s Black Bear hockey team had a 7-7 record in Hockey East play and was in sixth place.

But by going 10-1-2 over its last 13 games, the Black Bears climbed up the standings to earn the second seed and home ice for this weekend’s best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series against No. 7 UMass Lowell.

The series begins on Friday night.

Maine senior assistant captain and defenseman Steve Mullin said it took some soul-searching to get on their recent roll.

“It was just kind of everybody looking in the mirror and saying ‘We’re a better team than this’ and putting in a better effort and sticking to the game plan a lot better,” said Mullin. “When we were 7-7, it was a frustrating time. We weren’t playing well. We were taking full games off, basically.”

Junior left wing Josh Soares said, “This was a great feat for us. To go on the run we’ve gone on, we’ve really turned it on. Guys are doing their jobs out on the ice and you’re seeing what kind of team we really are right now.

“We realized that we had to show up every night to play. Some of those games we won early, we didn’t deserve to win them. We weren’t playing as well as we should have been. And then we started losing some of those games because we didn’t have that sense of urgency. We knew we weren’t a .500 hockey team at all and that’s when guys started focusing and really working hard on the ice. That was the main key. Everybody knew what they had to do out there and that’s what turned it around,” added Soares.

Senior center Derek Damon said Maine’s 10-1-2 stretch is a “tribute to our coaching staff and our team leaders. We knew we were a lot better than that and we started doing what the coaches asked of us. When you do that, you’re going to play well.”

Maine will be favored in their series against the River Hawks because they are the higher seed, they are playing at home and they have won the last nine meetings. Maine is 9-0-1 in its last 10 Alfond Arena games against the River Hawks.

But the Bear players expect a dogfight from a resurgent River Hawk team that has won its last three, besting Boston College (6-3) and Vermont twice (3-2, 5-2).

“It’s going to be a real tough series,” said senior left wing and captain Greg Moore. “They’re physical, they work hard and play together as a team. It’s definitely going to take best games to win that series.”

Soares said, “They’re coming off their best weekend of the season and they’re pretty hot right now. They always play us tough. We’ve had some luck against them. It won’t be an easy task.”

Damon said it’s going to be an “intense weekend. They’re playing their best hockey right now. It’s always different when it’s playoff hockey.”