Puck movement key to UMaine’s potent power play Bears convert 11 times in last 4 wins

ORONO – The University of Maine men’s hockey team has won four straight and the power play has been one of the key components behind that success.

Maine has scored 11 power-play goals in 21 opportunities (52.4 percent efficiency) during those four victories and the Black Bears possess the nation’s top power-play percentage at 27.9 percent.

Prior to the current stretch, the Bears had gone just 4-for-28 with the man advantage in their previous five games.

“We’re just keeping things simple,” said Maine senior left wing and assistant captain Josh Soares, who is tied for eighth in the country with seven power-play goals.

“We’re moving the puck quickly and then putting the puck to the net where we have guys who are screening, deflecting the puck and getting rebounds. It’s been working well for us,” said Soares. “We’ve also been getting some good bounces.”

Freshman right wing Teddy Purcell agreed.

“It’s all about moving the puck quicker instead of stickhandling or carrying the puck into pressure,” said Purcell. “If I’m down low, I’m giving the puck to [Michel Leveille] right away. I’m making that 30- to 40-foot pass. It’s the same down low with [Keith] Johnson, creating that movement. When you can get the penalty-killers running around, the lanes open up.”

Junior defenseman Bret Tyler, who has a team-leading 11 power-play assists to go with two power-play goals, said the Bears have been doing a better job moving without the puck to get into position to receive a pass or to shoot the puck. They will often interchange positions.

“If you’re just standing around, it’s easy for them to cover you. They don’t have to move that much,” said Tyler. “If we get [player] switches up top and switches down low, it makes it real confusing.”

He said it doesn’t hurt to get a nice shot on net early in the power play to get the penalty-killers thinking that they will shoot whenever they can.

“Then, after that, we’ll do a lot of switches and maybe have the guys in the front sometimes pop out so it makes it tough for the penalty-killers to cover us and get their sticks in the passing lanes,” added Tyler.

Purcell said if you watch NHL power plays, they don’t have a set scheme. Everyone is moving, everyone can be in a different position, he said.

“It’s all about supporting the puck and creating two-on-ones versus those penalty-killers,” said Purcell, who has four power-play goals and seven assists. “You’ve got to let the puck do the work. The puck moves a lot faster than the players do.”

Purcell also said when they were struggling on the power play, they kept working on it and “watching videotape to learn from our mistakes.”

Senior defenseman and assistant captain Mike Lundin said the power play got a little stale before the Christmas break but the players got “sharpened up and got some new ideas, some new tactics” during the break and things have been clicking ever since.

“It came so easy at the beginning of the year, we started to take it for granted. When we struggled, it was a wakeup call for us,” said Lundin.

The fact the Bears have two quality power-play units has also helped.

Soares, Billy Ryan and Mike Hamilton play down low on one unit with Keenan Hopson and Tyler at the points. Hamilton is the screener. The other unit has Leveille and Lundin at the points with Purcell, Brent Shepheard and Johnson down low. Shepheard screens the goalie.

Maine has 10 players with at least two power-play goals and six with three or more.

“That’s big. Most teams only have one unit they load up and [penalty-killers] key on them,” said Purcell. “But both of our units are successful. Sometimes we’re doing better and other times Tyler’s unit is doing better. Now both of us are going [well] so that makes it that much harder for other teams.”

UMass Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald said the key is “they have good players.

“They have guys who can keep plays alive. They have great tight-area skills. Any good offensive player has a low heart rate and they all do,” said MacDonald, referring to the fact they don’t panic with the puck.