ORONO – A five-game winless streak is uncharted territory for the University of Maine hockey team’s seniors.

The Black Bears are 0-4-1 in their last five games heading into Sunday afternoon’s 2:00 home game against the University of Vermont.

Maine has been outscored 15-5 in its five-game skid and has never led in any one of the five games. Opponents have a 5-1 edge in power play goals and have outshot Maine 151-114.

Last year’s team had a season-high four-game losing streak and a pair of three-game skids and the 2005-2006 team had one three-game losing skein. The 2004-2005 team never lost more than two games in a row.

Maine is now 4-6-1 overall, 2-4-1 in Hockey East. The Bears are in last place in Hockey East but they’re just five points out of first place. Every team in the league has at least two losses and a tie.

“We can’t dwell on it. The past is the past,” said Maine senior defenseman and captain Travis Ramsey. “There’s a lot of parity in Hockey East. New Hampshire lost to Northeastern (twice) and we swept Northeastern.

“We’ll bounce back, for sure,” insisted Ramsey.

Maine swept the Huskies in Boston but the Huskies have gone 4-0-1 in their last five league games to catapult to the top of the standings with 11 points courtesy of a 5-3-1 record.

Ramsey said the start to a turnaround begins with better practices and that has been the case so far this week.

“Our practices have been sharp. We’ve spent a lot more attention to detail,” said Ramsey. “We’ve had too many turnovers in our games. We’ve worked a lot on our skills like catching passes [cleanly]. We’ve had trouble catching the puck in high-traffic areas.”

Senior right wing Vince Laise concurred.

“We have to treat practices like games. We’ve taken a big step [in that area] this week. If we can do that consistently in our practices, it will help our confidence in games,” said Laise, who is expected to return to the lineup on Sunday after missing the last two games with a pulled stomach muscle.

Laise said he and his mates haven’t been doing the “little things” necessary to win games.

“Things like chipping the puck to space and driving the net,” said Laise. “We’ve got to get back to basics. We’ve got to work harder within our systems.”

He added that they have to do a better job protecting the puck and making better decisions at both blue lines.

Ramsey and Laise aren’t panicking.

“It’s a long season. It’s not like there’s only two games left,” said Laise who feels strongly that the Bears will recover and have a good season.

Ramsey said, “It would be easy to go into a hole but we aren’t. We’re fighting back.”

Operation Skybox 4 on Sunday

Operation Skybox 4 will be held during the University of Maine’s hockey game with Vermont on Sunday afternoon.

Operation Skybox involves providing Maine Air National Guard, Army Reserve and Maine Army National Guard members and their families with seats to a Black Bear hockey game.

The university, season ticket holders and skybox seat owners donate seats to the families.

Representing the Maine Army National Guard will be SECFOR II, a unit that returned from deployment to Iraq in July; B Co. 3/172 Infantry unit which returned from deployment to Iraq in May; the 240th Engineering Group which returned from deployment to Afghanistan in June and the 1-126th AV, which will deploy 122 soldiers in January.

The United States Army Reserve unit will be the 399th (CSH) Medical Support Hospital Company that returned from deployment to Iraq in August.

The Maine Air National Guard unit will be the 101st Air Refueling Wing.

There will also be some special guests of honor:

Specialist David Saucier has been recovering from wounds in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center that he suffered in Iraq. He is home on leave and will be on hand with his wife Trina, four-week old son Cadence and his parents.

Specialist Chris Frazer was wounded in Iraq when he was with the 172nd Infantry Mountain Company.

Mrs. Nancy Kelly, wife of SSG Dale Kelly, who was killed in action in Iraq, along with her family as well as Mrs. Lori Jones and her family.

Mrs. Jones’ husband, Michael, served a full tour in Iraq and was killed in a non-related combat death at Fort Drum, N.Y.

Also on hand will be Major General Bill Libby, the commander of the Maine National Guard and father of former Black Bear defenseman Jeff Libby (1994-97).