The Alfond awaits the opening puck drop on Friday evening. (Photo: Patience Hanley — UMaine Athletics)

Win, lose, or tie, there has always been one constant in every game the Maine Black Bears have played in this season:

A superior work ethic to that of their opponent.

On Friday night, that identity, in which so much of Maine’s success hangs in the balance of, was sorely missing.

“I thought for large portions of the game we got outworked. Maybe the first time that’s happened to us this year. Whether we win or lose, we pride ourselves on not getting outworked,” Head Coach Ben Barr said after the game. “It’s disappointing.”

The last time Maine played at the Alfond, the Black Bears churned out arguably their most impressive performance during Barr’s tenure: a dizzyingly dominant display against Denver. Maine’s sheer will, work-rate, heart, and soul led the way to victory in that game.

But just a fortnight later, Maine was a shell of their former selves. Sputtering, stumbling, and slipping at the hands of the Connecticut Huskies 4-2. A night-and-day difference.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

“It’s really disappointing; we’re a team that prides ourselves on outworking other teams. We’re definitely going to need to look back at this one and hopefully use this as a learning experience for us not to allow other teams to come into our building and outwork us,” senior defenseman David Breazeale said.

Frigid first

Right from the opening puck drop, something seemed off.

With students not returning back to campus from Winter Break until Sunday, the balcony was left sparse, leaving the Alfond feeling hollow without its x-factor.

On the ice, things were equally scattered for the Black Bears, who lacked the extra edge that their style of game intensely relies upon. Maine couldn’t muster the explosive energy, fighting spirit, and intimidating intensity that has been the essential component in their rise to one of the best teams in the nation.

Connecticut was faster, stronger, and smarter in every area of the ice. UConn won the footraces to loose pucks, out-fought the Black Bears in battles against the boards, and were more dynamic and full of ideas with the puck on their tape.

“We were just very average in all aspects of the game tonight,” Barr said.

It felt as if the frigid temperatures outside made their way into the Alfond and froze Maine’s gears so they could not mesh.

The Black Bears' first period was disjointed and dire. Maine could not get up ice through UConn’s clogging defense that effectively stymied the Black Bears from moving through the zones with a head of steam. Slow when crossing into the o-zone, the Black Bears were battered off the puck by the physically superior Huskies, who didn’t allow Maine to generate much offensive zone time of real substance in the first period. Early on, the Black Bears’ hounding forecheck was nowhere to be seen.

Taylor Makar tangles with Connecticut’s John Spetz. (Photo: Patience Hanley — UMaine Athletics)

Meanwhile, UConn had everything Maine did not. The Huskies played full of desire, oozed with confidence, were committed to a clear game plan, and outmuscled Maine. The Black Bears were beaten at their own game in their own building.

“They’re fast; they were committed to their game. They were chipping out pucks; they weren’t turning pucks over at bluelines. They were confident and had a ton of energy. They had a lot of juice in those first two periods and I don’t think we matched it as well as we should have and as well as we could of and have in the past. They played a hard game, and it’s a bummer,” Breazeale explained.

The Huskies howled and snarled, while the Black Bears provided very little biteback.

It also didn’t help that Connecticut forward Joey Muldowney decided to have the game of his life Friday night, scoring all four of UConn’s goals. In his 55 career collegiate games played, Muldowney entered the evening with 13 goals. He now has 17.

Muldowney’s first strike came midway through the first period on the power play, finding a quiet area of ice in the slot where Maine couldn’t close down the space. This left the UConn forward enough time to swivel toward the net and beat Boija low glove side.

Since they returned from break, the Black Bears giving up the game’s first goal has become an unwelcome pattern. Maine has now fallen behind in five of the last six games, getting behind the eight-ball early and giving themselves a mighty psychological mountain to climb most nights. On Friday night, the Black Bears were constantly playing catchup, leaving Connecticut in the driver's seat, dictating the game on their terms.

“Obviously, you don’t want to start behind, but we came back twice. Good teams have got to come back, and you’re not always going to score the first goal in the game,” Barr said.

The Black Bears would have felt fortunate to get into the dressing room for the first intermission, with the game knotted at one when a fluky puck bounce went Maine’s way. Sully Scholle’s backhand scoop from the right faceoff circle ricocheted off Charlie Russell’s thigh, redirecting the fluttering puck past UConn’s Tyler Myszelik.

Maine without momentum

Maine’s second period began with an early Muldowney goal to reestablish UConn’s lead. The middle frame was better by Maine in moments, but only in moments.

The Black Bears struggled to stack solid shifts one after another. Maine might produce a minute of offensive zone time here or 45 seconds of hard-nosed play around the UConn net there, but these spells were fleeting and didn’t enable Maine to build any momentum. When the Black Bears are playing their best, their ability to keep their foot on the gas pedal shift after shift wears down opponents, keeping them on the backfoot fighting fires around their net, and eventually overwhelming them — strangling them into submission.

“We just couldn’t follow a good shift with another good shift. That was our problem tonight,” Barr said.

Not helping Maine’s search for momentum was the Huskies' rapid transition game that could get UConn up ice in the blink of an eye at a moment's notice, completely negating any of the good work the Black Bears could generate in their offensive zone. Connecticut, in their defensive zone, was aggressive in pressuring the points, won the battles along the half-boards, and could fly past the pinching Maine defensemen all too easily.

“They do a good job in their zone, and they swarm really fast if you don’t get the puck out of the corner. We made some bad pinches. We had some half-in pinches down the wall with our D. Anytime you go half-in, and you’re not sure if you can get there, that’s not a good situation. So not a good read on those scenarios, and they’ve got really good team speed, and they beat you up the ice they get chances,” Barr said.

This is precisely how UConn’s second goal came to fruition: Frank Djurasevic’s poorly timed pinch took the defenseman completely out of the play, leaving the sophomore in no man’s land, allowing the Huskies to break up the ice with Muldowney tallying his second goal on the 2-on-1 rush.

Mental mistakes

It wasn’t just physically being outworked. Mental lapses haunted Maine all night.

“It’s the details. Not being completely locked in for the full sixty minutes every single shift. We need every single guy every time they jump over the boards to be completely locked in and as detailed as you can because, obviously, they are a team that’s going to take advantage of you when you’re not,” Breazeale said.

Early in the third period, Nolan Renwick did his best to spark his team through an unbelievable individual coast-to-coast goal that saw the lumbering Saskie slither his way through a whole pack of Huskies, popping up in the slot, snipping Muszelik off the post.

The Black Bears, finally with a bit of momentum and giddy-up in their step, began to produce prolonged periods of offense, buzzing around the Connecticut net. Looking like they were back to their best selves, most of the play was in and around the UConn end, with the Maine forecheck hemming the Huskies in for the first time all evening.

Nolan Renwick watches his shot find the back of the net. (Photo: Patience Hanley — UMaine Athletics)

As Barr alluded to, mental focus was an issue in the team’s week of practice following their road sweep of Lowell.

“It felt like the last couple days of practice. That’s how practice felt, like how the game went today. So we’ve got to figure it out,” Barr said. “It’s disappointing. We’ve got to find the reasons why.”

Muldowney would go on to score his fourth in the final minute of play, sliding a long-range effort that inched its way over an empty goalline to seal the deal for the Huskies.

Sub-par in every facet of the game, the Black Bears couldn’t elevate their play and will themselves into fourth gear, let alone fifth, for more than a few scattered moments.

More worrying, however, was the fact that Maine not only played without their identity but that their focus wasn’t at the Alfond Friday night, nor in the week leading up to the weekend.

Overly confident after a massive road sweep?

Looking ahead to the bye week next weekend and other challenges on the horizon?

The Black Bears showed that they aren’t talented enough to sleep-walk through a game against a Hockey East foe and have their skill and national ranking take care of the rest. They’re not built that way.

But Saturday is a new day, and hopefully this gave Maine a wake-up call. The clear message is that if they don’t play to the high standards they have set this year, their season will be over before they know it.

“You can’t dwell on it too much. You go home tonight and wash it. Tomorrow, we’ll watch it back and learn from it. We’ve got to come back — you can’t be thinking about it tomorrow when you’re coming to the game. You’ve just got to be thinking of that first shift and that first play you’re going to make. So, it’s an opportunity for us to reset and go into it tomorrow night with a fresh mindset. It’s awesome because we get to play two games here, we get to go and try and do it again tomorrow night, hopefully with a better response,” Breazeale said.

Back to basics, on to Saturday.

Time to put up a fight.