Wiped out by the whiteout.

The New Hampshire Wildcats wholly outplayed the Maine Black Bears Friday evening at the Whittemore Center, thrashing the Black Bears 6-2 in the first game of Border Battle weekend.

While the droves of Black Bear Nation traveling down I-95 escaped an early Friday morning snowfall, awaiting them south of the border was complete whiteout conditions, part of UNH's annual White Out the Whitt for the rivalry game against Maine.

After surprising the College Hockey community with a strong start to their season, the Wildcats' train had slipped off the tracks, dropping six of their last nine games. The skid dropped New Hampshire to #16 in the Pairwise.

According to College Hockey News' Pairwise Probability Matrix, it is statistically impossible for any team in the CCHA or Atlantic Hockey conferences to earn an at-large bid to the sixteen-team National Tournament. As such, the last two spots will be filled by these two conferences' tournament champions. This means that the cutoff for earning an at-large bid is now at a minimum #14, without counting any upsets in other conference tournaments that would lower this number further.

For the Wildcats, this means their #16 ranking has them on the outside looking in and requires them to have a close-to-perfect end of their season if they're to make the big dance.

For Maine, this means they faced a New Hampshire team desperately fighting for their NCAA Tournament hopes, scratching and clawing to hold on to their ninth life.

Not only were the Black Bears tasked with putting away a team scraping to save their season, but they were faced with doing so in the most hostile environment this young team faced.

The Whittemore Center shows up loud and proud whenever Maine rocks into town.

Friday evening was to be no different, as the Black Bears were welcomed into enemy territory with an electric and daunting atmosphere that not only looked to shake and rattle Maine but give New Hampshire the extra edge and motivation.

After the wheels fell off on Maine's overtime loss to Providence due to ill-disciplined penalties and a lack of composure, the Black Bears would need to quickly mature before being thrown into the Cat's cauldron.

For the Black Bears to be successful in the whirlwind atmosphere of the Whittemore Center, Maine would not only need to mature but also maintain their composure for a complete sixty minutes. Not allowing their emotions to spiral out of control during the hubbub of excitement while making sure to stay even-keeled and focused would be critical for Maine.

But controlling these emotions could not come at the cost of diminishing energy and intensity. Head Coach Ben Barr emphasized before the game the importance of maintaining focused intensity levels between the whistles but not going overboard and committing dumb penalties after the play is dead like they did last weekend to Providence.

The lineup Barr chose to bounce back with was largely unchanged from last weekend. Maine's top two forward lines remained the same, as did the defensive pairings, which once again had Jack Dalton dressing with Ryan Hopkins and Bodie Nobes scratched. Barr swapped centermen, Nolan Renwick and Cole Hanson, slotting Hanson between Ben Poisson and Anthony Calafiore and Renwick with Félix Trudeau and Reid Pabich. Notably, this meant Sully Scholle and Nicholas Niemo were not dressing for the Black Bears.

Barr once again rode his hot goaltender, Albin Boija, who had another stellar weekend against Providence, bailing out his team time and again, earning himself the starting job and his fourth straight start.

For Maine to find success Friday evening, they would also need to out-execute New Hampshire. With the long-time rivals already playing twice this season — one was an exhibition — neither team's structure or playstyle would surprise the other. Instead, the outcome of the game would be determined by whoever could execute in key areas of the ice more efficiently. Whether it be executing defensively, executing passes, executing on scoring opportunities, executing winning battles, or executing the game plan, superior execution was to be the name of the game.

And the first task the Black Bears needed to execute was finding a way to quiet the boisterous building early on in order to absorb the New Hampshire momentum that was sure to come firing out of the gates.

The puck dropped to deafening noise produced by the 'Cat Pack.'

But a choppy, stop-start opening few minutes, coupled with a defensively focused Maine structure, helped dull the crowd's excitement from loud to lulled.

The Black Bears, wary of allowing UNH's rapid team speed to get their legs moving up ice, utilized a conservative forecheck that really only sent the first forward hard onto the puck carrier while the other two forwards made sure to stay in position and not be overly exposed at the half-boards.

But as the Whittemore atmosphere whittled and the Black Bears sensed their chance to pounce and ramp up their aggressiveness, the Wildcats' sheer dominance in the neutral zone became apparent and an instant game changer.

New Hampshire broke through Maine's forecheck with shocking ease. In the blink of an eye, the Wildcats could outmaneuver the Black Bears' press and find a UNH teammate at center ice. The Wildcat puck receiver, usually standing strong against the boards at the red-line, could receive the outlet pass from the breakout before, while still stationary, one-touching it into the path of a teammate charging through the zone. This enabled UNH to enter Maine's end with such blistering speed that the Black Bears' defensemen strained to keep up.

The Black Bears, on the other hand, couldn't work up their own head of steam in the neutral zone, which was clogged and cluttered with a litter of Wildcat bodies. With New Hampshire's structure slowing Maine down to a crawl at center-ice, by the time the Black Bears could gain the offensive zone, they didn't have the speed to beat a man outside and create chances off the rush. This severely limited their offensive flow as Maine, unable to enter the zone with speed, looked far too predictable and out of ideas in their attacking moves.

Not helping Maine's cause was a failure to execute crisp passes, especially around UNH's net. Perhaps it was due to the nerves of playing in a rival's building or the pressure of the playoff push getting to them. Either way, the Black Bears' looked as though they were gripping their sticks too tight, repeatedly fumbling and bumbling key passes in the o-zone, often being the architects of their own offensive downfall, failing to connect with enough regularity.

For the most part, both teams kept each other at stick length in the first half of the first period, sizing each other up, neither wanting to break structure and make the game's first mistake, handing the other the momentum. The Black Bears were held to just one shot on goal for the majority of the first period, while the Wildcats only had a handful more of their own.

But Maine was the first to blink.

Maine turned the puck over in their own end when a Wildcat smothered the Black Bears' breakout at the blue line. The puck squirted out to UNH forward Harrison Blaisdell, who showcased his serpentine speed, slithering and splitting Maine's defensemen before beating Boija blocker side.

The Wildcat goal not only gave UNH the lead on the scoreboard late in the first but also gave the Wildcats the momentum and confidence to keep going at the Black Bears. With their tails up and roared on by the sellout crowd of over seven thousand, New Hampshire sensed that the Black Bears were on the ropes and continued to push the envelope, searching to double their lead with an early knockout blow.

But the Black Bears were able to escape to their dressing room without enduring any more cat scratches as the first period ended with Maine only recording two shots on net, while UNH had thirteen.

The right things must have been said in Maine's dressing room during the intermission as the Black Bears came out in the second with renewed focus, finally beginning to get their legs into the game and implement their game plan.

The Black Bears blitzed out of the intermission, equaling their first-period shot total within a minute of the second frame. A minute after that, they equaled New Hampshire's scoreboard tally.

Ben Poisson's solid defensive play forced UNH to cough up the puck at their blueline, leaving New Hampshire out of position as he pounced on the loose puck, charging into UNH's zone and cutting down low to the faceoff dot. Alongside him, Cole Hanson, with fresh legs just onto the ice, drove to the net, winning stick and body-positioning with a Wildcat defender and deftly deflecting Poisson's centering pass between the Wildcat netminder's wickets. The tying goal hushed the New Hampshire crowd, leaving pockets of Black Bear blue jumping in jubilee amongst the hoards of white.

Hanson has really found his stride in recent weeks. Always hard-working off the puck and responsible on it, he has refound his formidable form from last season, earning himself a place alongside Maine's second powerplay unit.

The goal and strong second-period start from the Black Bears gave Maine the extra pep in their step as it was the visitors now with the wind in their sails and the hosts struggling to keep pace.

Maine was vastly improved up and down the ice during the second frame's first half. To the chagrin of Wildcat fans, Maine started to pick up their checking game, finishing their hits and sending white jerseys into the white ice. Meanwhile, Maine's blueliners began to absorb and smother UNH's previously dangerous off-rush chances as the Black Bears began to control possession of the puck and work towards dictating the game on their terms.

More composed with the puck on their sticks, the Black Bears' passing began to click for the first time all night, especially in the o-zone, where the puck carrier's poise was significantly improved. Better on the rush, the Black Bears often found a d-man jumping up into the attack to create overloads of Maine bodies driving toward UNH's net.

But as quickly as Maine swung the momentum in their favor, they handed it right back to New Hampshire through misplaced passes on the breakout, keeping the Black Bears running around in their zone, unable to release the Wildcat pressure.

Tired legs led to tired minds as UNH regained their one-goal advantage.

A defensive breakdown had Black Bear blueliner Jack Dalton entirely on the wrong side of his man when, all of a sudden, a seemingly innocent enough looking stretch pass led to an open Wildcat forward all-alone in front of an exposed Boija who had no chance of keeping the backhanded shot out of his net.

A significant sliding doors moment in the game came no more than two minutes after the Wildcats' took the lead. With Maine shorthanded, Ben Poisson completely skied a shot over the net after his blocked shot created his own breakaway, squandering the golden opportunity. But to make matters worse, the Wildcats immediately marched right back up ice and converted on their own rush, carving apart the Black Bear penalty kill and ripping a snapshot past Boija's flashing glove.

Failed execution at one end, better execution at the other.

But the Wildcats handed the Black Bears a lifeline when a UNH player was given a five-minute major penalty and game-misconduct for hitting Grayson Arnott in the head with a vicious high-hit, putting the Black Bears on the extended power play late in the second.

Unfortunately for Maine, the Black Bears repeatedly ran into the brick wall of Jakob Hellsten, who kept the Wildcats in the lead, making difficult saves look easy and shutting down most everything thrown his way. Hellsten was tested often in the second period, especially during the extended power play, refusing to spill any rebounds for the Black Bears to clean up as pucks repeatedly stuck to the UNH goaltender.

Maine's powerplay, which carried over into the third period, looked devoid of ideas in figuring out a way to unlock the Wildcats' defense, which stymied and suffocated the Black Bears man-advantage. Maine kept trying to feed wicked one-timers to Bradly Nadeau at his favorite spot at the left faceoff circle, but predictable in this approach, Hellsten got over to cover his far post well, routinely sliding over to protect his net and further frustrate the Bears' most lethal scoring weapon.

All evening long, Bradly and Josh Nadeau's game-changing abilities were shut down by a pestering Wildcat defense that choked the space between the brothers, severely limiting their capacity to feed each other and frustrating the pair. It's a defensive scheme that has been put on the Nadeaus a lot in recent weeks as opposition teams' have started to figure out that in order to squander the Black Bear offense that was so elite earlier on in the season, it is vital to cut off the Nadeau brother’s two-headed monster, usually by hacking and whacking away at the New Brunswick natives to no end.

The five-minute power play would carry over to the third period, but unfortunately for Maine, the fresh ice did not freshen up the Black Bears' shooting luck, which could not beat Hellsten as Maine went scoreless on the extended man-advantage.

Top-to-bottom, on each side of the puck, and in all areas of the ice, Maine was utterly and totally outplayed.

On the puck, the attack was not cohesive, unable to string together a chain of passes and create much of a cycle game at all. Chasing, Maine struggled significantly in moving through the gears and grinding down UNH with physicality and relentless pressure, sputtering out on the rare occasions things started to go their way. The Black Bear forecheck that is so key to the teams' identity never really got up to the speed of the game as New Hampshire kept the Black Bears chasing the play, often a step behind.

The Wildcats simply looked like they had more energy, seemingly always winning the one-on-one puck battles and completely dominating Maine in the physical department. UNH ground down the Black Bears, who were left huffing and puffing on their bench. At the same time, Maine couldn't get the puck off UNH, who began playing a cruel game of keep-away from the Bears, rolling off Maine checks easily and outskating the Black Bears through open ice.

The Black Bears were brutally bullied up and down the ice.

Maine, however, was given a slimmer of hope when Anthony Calafiore was the last to swat at a loose puck that remained bouncing around in the crease for a significant length of time, poking the puck over the goalline a mad scramble in front of the net. The Wildcats would challenge the goal for goaltender interference, and while Calafiore's goal would stand, the lengthy review, lasting almost five minutes, completely killed the small spark of Maine momentum that was created.

The traveling Alfonders pushed their team forward with chants of "Let's go Black Bears," which were loudly booed by the home supporters, who quickly responded with taunts something along the lines of "Puck UMaine."

Student section jeers were quickly turned to cheers as the Black Bears, holding on by a thread late in the third, fell victim to another UNH rush, leading to another UNH goal with Liam Devlin slotting through Boija's five-hole on the partial break.

The floodgates opened, and so did the insults. After Devlin secured his hat trick with an empty-netter minutes later, taunts of "overrated" rang down onto the ice across the Whittemore Center.

The Wildcats would add on one more, adding insult to injury, securing New Hampshire's Border Battle win with a nasty deflected shot in garbage time to finalize the score 6-2 in favor of the hosts.

Out-coached, outplayed, and out-fought.

UNH was far superior in every facet of the game.

The Black Bears got exactly what they deserved, a shellacking at the hands of their noisy neighbors.

Embarrassed and humiliated.

For the first time all season, Maine was outworked and out-efforted.

While the result may not go Maine's way in the rematch on Saturday, the performance and pushback will be the main signs of a much-needed improvement.

By far Maine's worst performance of the season, it begins to bring into question plenty of fragilities that have been covered up by winning results in recent weeks. Really, ever since the turn of the New Year, the Black Bears haven't been able to find their offensive feet routinely. After carrying the results early in the season, the offense, and particularly the Nadeau brothers, have gone as quiet as they ever have been during their first season in Orono. On the other end of the ice, Maine shows considerable fragility in its inability to deal with a heavy hitting opponent that looks to wear down Maine.

Have teams found the winning formula against Maine?

Is the pressure of being a ranked team getting to the Bears?

Is it time for a major line shakeup?

Did this team peak too early?

Or is this just one of those nights? A perfect storm of playing against an exceptionally good opponent in a hostile environment where things just weren't clicking.

This is a young team and one that will learn from this.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Will this be the wake-up call Maine needs?

A lot of questions are soon to be answered.

This team has given us so much; it's our turn to return the support.

Saturday is a whole new day. Which Black Bears will we see?