Goals have been hard to come by for the University of Maine women’s hockey team.

But after being shut out in three straight games, the Black Bears finally found the back of the net in a pair of 3-2 losses to Robert Morris (Pa.) over the weekend. First-year coach Dan Lichterman hopes they can continue their offensive progress against the University of Connecticut this afternoon at 4 as the Bears resume Hockey East play.

“Offensively, that was our best weekend all year,” said Lichterman. “We created a lot of scoring chances, although we didn’t finish a lot of them. We hit three posts on Friday night.”

Maine has scored only 16 goals in 12 games.

The Bears, who had gone 215 minutes, 26 seconds without a goal until Amy Stech scored on Friday night, have lost eight in a row and are winless in their last 11 (0-10-1), but Lichterman said they don’t dwell on it.

“We just take things one day at a time. We have 18 league games left. Our goal is to make the [Hockey East] playoffs. We aren’t that concerned with our out-of-conference record,” said Lichterman.

Maine is 0-2-1 in Hockey East.

“The kids are working hard. We’re working a lot on trying to increase our hockey IQ a little bit. So much of it for us is getting those building blocks each day. We want to get better every day, every week and every weekend,” added Lichterman.

He said they have changed their game plan over the course of the season.

“We’re trying to get more pucks on net, we want to be more accountable on [opponents’] second-chance opportunities and create more second- chance opportunities ourselves and we want to win the special teams battle. The special teams have hurt us the most. We need to get a lot better in that area,” said Lichterman.

Maine is just 3-for-57 on the power play (5.3 percent) while opponents are 16-for-74 (21.6 percent). Maine has surrendered three shorthanded goals and hasn’t scored one.

He said his power play “needs to be more patient and let things develop a little bit more. They also need to make solid passes coming out of the [defensive] zone.”

One key to the penalty kill, he said, is to stay out of the penalty box.

“We’ve got to avoid taking stupid penalties – lazy penalties,” said Lichterman.

Lichterman praised the play of wingers Stech, who had a goal in each Robert Morris game, and Abby Barton and said senior defenseman Kim Meagher had a great weekend. He also said sophomore forward Lexie Hoffmeyer, a transfer from Mercyhurst, has done a nice job filling in on defense in place of Jenna Cowan, who has mononucleosis.

One constant all season long has been the goaltending of Genevieve Turgeon (1-6-1, 3.37 goals-against average, .920 save percentage) and freshman Sarah Bishop (0-4, 2.75, .918).

“The goaltending has been solid every night. They make the saves they should make and a bunch of ones they shouldn’t. You can’t ask too much more out of our goaltenders,” said Lichterman, who reiterated that his players need to do a better job clearing rebounds and eliminating second-chance opportunities.

White Out Night scheduled

Next Tuesday night’s Maine women’s hockey game against Boston University at the Alfond Arena will be “White Out Night.”

Fans are asked to wear white and radio station WVOM-FM (103.9) will give out free T-shirts to the first 300 people in attendance who wear white.

In addition, toys will be collected to donate to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program, which supplies Christmas gifts to underprivileged children. Fans can drop off new, unwrapped toys at the game.

Anyone who donates a toy can sign up to win a Bugaboo Creek, Margarita’s or Sea Dog gift card.

Toys will also be collected at the women’s basketball game in the Dead River Co. Classic on Nov. 24 at either 3:30 or 6 p.m., the men’s basketball game against New Jersey Tech on Dec. 1 at noon and the men’s hockey game against Merrimack College on Dec. 8 at 7 p.m.