Small margins.

As the season progresses and the games become tighter, the smallest margins suddenly become magnified.

A different bounce of a puck here or the change in a referee's decision there drastically alternate the bottom line on the scoreboard when all is said and done.

There are a million of these sliding door moments in a hockey game. Each rolling puck hopping over a stick or a battle against the boards being momentarily won, then lost, then won again completely changes an unfathomable amount of variables that determine the following sequence, the play after that, and eventually a game's outcome.

A domino effect.

Compound enough of these minuscule moments in your favor, and all of a sudden, everything seems to be going your way. Or miss out by a millimeter too many times, and suddenly, the game is out of your reach before you can even blink.

The Maine Black Bears' 6-3 loss to the Northeastern Huskies Friday night showed how tight these margins are and how much significance each one of them possesses.

Coming off a bye week, the Black Bears were glad to be back at full health for their trip to Beantown to drop the puck on the team's final regular season gauntlet of games and push for the playoffs.

Forward Nolan Renwick and defenseman Grayson Arnott were reinstated straight into the lineup after their lengthy injuries. Renwick centered a line with wingers Félix Trudeau and Anthony Calafiore, while on the backend, Arnott slotted next to David Breazeale for most of the game. The Black Bears being back at full strength meant plenty of disappointed talent was to be watching from the stands. Parker Lindauer, Reid Pabich, Nicholas Niemo, and Bodie Nobes were the most notable unlucky Black Bears to be scratched. The goaltender rotation saw Victor Ostman back between the pipes for Maine over Albin Boija.

Historic Matthews Arena in Boston's Back Bay played host to the #6 Black Bears and the red-hot Huskies, who rolled into Friday night off the back of a huge upset over local rivals and top-tier side BU.

If there was ever a time to not want to play Northeastern.

The old barn, which opened over a hundred years ago, was not only the first home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics but is also the oldest hockey rink still in use worldwide. While steeped in history and full of wonderful quirks and colorful oddities, Matthews Arena has not been a happy hunting ground for the Black Bears of late.

Having faield to come away from the locally coined "Dog House" with a victory in fourteen straight games, Head Coach Ben Barr and his team knew that a complete performance would be needed to change their fortunes.

After a week away from action, Barr wanted to ensure that no rust would be present after the layover. In his pregame Keys to the Game, Barr stressed the importance of the first five to ten minutes in determining how the remainder of the contest would proceed. He emphasized that a traditional road mentality would be needed. Simple plays, taking what the opponent gives them, and moving up the ice zone by zone would be essential for Maine to ensure all cobwebs were truly shaken off and that the Black Bears could start gaining traction and momentum to build off.

Maine took their coach's wish to heart and looked to be chomping at the bit for a return to competition, as the first half of the opening period was all Black Bear blue.

The spark plug line of Donovan Houle, Thomas Freel, and Lynden Breen got the Black Bears' ball rolling with a bang. Sticking to the team's identity of outworking the opponent, the starting line set the tone with a relentless forecheck, forcing a turnover and immediately working the puck around the offensive zone with a purposeful cycle.

With Northeastern immediately on their heels, the Black Bears made sure not to let up, penning the Huskies in their zone, allowing fresh Black Bear legs onto the ice to build off their teammates' hard work against tired Northeastern skaters stuck firefighting around their net.

Maine did a solid job at stacking shifts, not allowing the change in personnel on the ice to alter the tide of early Maine pressure. For example, in the first minutes of the contest, Houle, Breen, and Freel would wear down the Huskies with their bruising and buzzing forecheck, pinning Northeastern against the boards down low, allowing Harrison Scott and the Nadeau brothers fresh onto the ice to go to work against the exhausted Huskies deep in Northeastern territory.

The Black Bears' best scoring opportunities in these opening minutes came from playing to the road mentality of simplicity over intricacy.

Northeastern could not live with Maine when the Black Bears put pucks in deep and played direct. Battle after battle in the corners and against the boards were won by Maine, who time and again would emerge from the chaos they created with grade-a scoring opportunities.

While his linemates were once again excellent, Lynden Breen stole the show in the first period. The senior's small frame didn't outweigh his tenacious pestering of the puck on the forecheck. The New Brunswick native excelled at using his stick strength to tie up a Husky puck carrier allowing a teammate to swoop in and steal the puck or outright come away with the biscuit himself. But it was once with the puck that Maine's co-captain could shine the brightest.

Northeastern simply could not get the puck off him. With a low center of gravity and the ability to change directions rapidly, Breen was brilliant at rolling off Husky checks, worming his way out of seemingly perilous situations with the puck sticking to the tape of his blade like glue.

But the Black Bears could not lay down the hammer and capitalize on their early momentum, which slowly dissipated as the Huskies grew in confidence after weathering the storm and began to get a foothold in the contest. It soon became an open, back-and-forth affair.

The free-flowing battle not only brought Northeastern into the game with several quality looks that whistled narrowly past Victor Ostman's net but also dissolved Maine's formula of simplicity in their offensive end. The Black Bears, who are usually so dangerous with open ice, struggled to connect on the final, cutting pass in Northeastern's end. The Huskies did a good job at getting bodies and sticks between Maine's puck carriers and intended pass recipients while defending the rush. Horizontal, cross-crease passes were not coming off as Maine couldn't find the poise with the puck required to thread the needle.

Frustrated, the Black Bears started trying to be too cute and clever with the puck, hoping their creativity could be the formula to break down the Northeastern defense. But these complex attacks started to have an adverse effect as several puck-handling mistakes released the pressure on Northeastern and created good scoring looks at the other end.

The Huskies howled first when a puck-handling miscue while on a line change caught the Black Bears out of position. This left Maine exposed and allowed a centering pass to be worked around Ostman, shoveled towards the crease where it popped off a Maine stick and into the back of the net.

Small margins suddenly took away Maine's momentum and changed the swing of the game.

While they were just small mental errors or puck fumbles, it led to the Black Bears losing traction in their game. These minuscule margins become multiplied in significance when playing against a team as talented and able to capitalize on mistakes as Northeastern.

The second period opened as the first began, wide open with both sides trading blows at either end of the ice. A Northeastern shot echoed wickedly off Matthew Arena's wooden roof and metal truss moments before it was Maine's turn to execute on a Husky turnover.

A cross-ice pass from a Huskies defenseman was pounced on by a lurking Josh Nadeau at Northeastern's blue line. Bearing down on net on the partial breakaway, Josh did not allow the Huskies to scamper back into position, firing a twisted wrister blocker-side past Cameron Whitehead in net. The large contingent of blue-partisan supporters erupted from the red seats, with the contest now rightfully tied at one apiece early in the second.

During the week, Barr talked about how it was going to be crucial for Maine to keep this weekend's games from being a back-and-forth, mayhem-filled slugfest with each team trading high-quality scoring chances. He wanted a solid defensive platform to be the building block for his team's offensive prowess.

An open contest with each side trading blows would give Northeastern's embarrassment of talent too many free looks on Ostman's net and keep the Black Bears scrambling. It would also not allow Maine to wrangle control of the contest's reins, dictate the tempo, and establish their own gameplan.

Unfortunately for Maine, they could never keep the Huskies fully contained for much of the second period. While the Black Bears dominated in terms of shots in the second — sixteen to five — Northeastern's offensive might was always lurking. The Huskies could seemingly create grade-a chances out of thin air through their mix of speed through the neutral zone and high-speed, crisp puck movement in all areas of the ice.

Much of Northeastern's offense in the second stemmed from quick transitions up ice on the counter-attack. Clogging the shooting lanes well in front of their net, Northeastern's wingers were proficient in getting out to the point and blocking Maine shots. Not only did this hinder Maine's offense, but through blocking shots and the puck instantly ricocheting out of their zone, the Huskies could quickly transition up ice with blistering speed, leaving Maine defenders on the wrong side of the puck.

As the second period wore on, the Black Bears' details improved; thus, their overall game grew stronger. Better poise with the puck limited the Black Bears' turnovers, and soon, Maine was back to swarming the Northeastern net with quality scoring chances.

Maine lit the lamp to take the lead late in the second. Freshman defenseman Ryan Hopkins' point shot was blocked, but the Nova Scotia native did well to stick with the play and narrowly kept the puck from exiting the Maine attacking zone. From here, Ben Poisson settled the bouncing puck down, enabling Cole Hanson to scoop up the loose change, walk into the slot, and float a backhanded shot off a sprawling Husky defender. The shot fluttered past the helpless Whitehead and nestled itself in the net. The goal would be scrutinized thoroughly during a lengthy review for possible offsides, but to the delight of the masses of Black Bear Nation in attendance, Hanson's goal would stand as Maine headed into the second intermission in the driver's seat with a one-goal lead.

But from this point on, everything started to go wrong for Maine.

The Black Bears have had the knack of owning the third period this season. Usually growing into the game and playing their best in the game's final frame.

Friday night, however, the shoe was on the other foot.

Northeastern opened up the third period by quickly evening the score with an inch-perfect shot to beat Ostman's blocker side.

It quickly went from bad to worse.

The floodgates opened.

Five minutes into the final period saw the game's biggest sliding doors moment materialize when a Ben Poisson elbowing penalty was, after another lengthy review, changed to a five-minute game misconduct for contact to the head.

While in real time, the hit didn't seem overly malicious, once the officials started to gather around the monitor to review the play, it always had the bad feeling of being upgraded to a major penalty, especially in the modern game where any slight contact to an opponent's head is deemed worthy of a major penalty.

While the debate in Black Bear Nation over the referees' decision will rage long through the weekend, it was the first leaf to fall in what would quickly tumble into a nightmare for the Black Bears.

With Northeastern on the extended man advantage, the Huskies struck gold with every shot they took.

Before you could even blink, Northeastern blitzed three goals past Ostman in under three minutes.

5-2, just like that.

With each Husky goal, the home faithful grew increasingly raucous, growing louder with their taunting toward Ostman and the Black Bears. The snowball picked up speed and quickly became an avalanche as the Black Bears were put through the washing machine spin cycle.

With each goal, the stunned Black Bears look more and more devoid of the energy integral to this team's makeup.

While the Alfond Faithful have every right to feel frustrated by the officials, the five minutes following Poisson's penalized hit should be equally criticized. The penalty kill that has been so strong in recent weeks simply wasn't good enough to handle Northeastern's superb powerplay Friday.

Failure to clear the zone and release the Husky pressure repeatedly came back to bite the Black Bears as Northeastern's elite offensive talent repeatedly overwhelmed the Black Bears. On top of that, Ostman, who was so elite during the first half of the season, has suddenly looked concerningly shaky in recent weeks. He seems devoid of confidence, struggling to make the saves he used to make in his sleep, and overall, looks to be fighting to find his old form.

With the ice tilted completely against Maine, the Black Bears' fight back, and refusal to quit was exceptional. It would have been so easy to give up and turn their attention to Saturday's game at UMass, but the Black Bears battled to the bitter end, playing their best hockey to end the game.

The final ten minutes of the game were reminiscent of the opening ten. The Black Bears got the puck in deep and outbattled the Huskies to everything. With five minutes left and nothing to lose, Barr pulled Ostman for the extra attacker as the Black Bears threw the kitchen sink at Northeastern.

Maine was magnificent in the final minutes, completely outplaying Northeastern with an edge only desperation can create.

But the in-form goaltender in Hockey East, Whitehead, was immense, saving everything that he could see and plenty that he could not. Maine continued to knock on Northeastern's door to no avail. Whitehead didn't spill many rebounds, and when he did, he recovered, kept his positioning, and further frustrated the Black Bears.

Already with a tally on the scoresheet, Cole Hanson added to his best game of the season with his second goal of the night. Hanson's performance was telling in that he was thrown onto the six-man unit alongside the Nadeau brothers and Scott, showing the trust he has earned from the coaching staff to make the right play in the offensive end when the team needs it the most. A nifty dish from Josh Nadeau to Hanson creeping in from the point gave the Black Bears hope with forty-six seconds left, but Maine's fightback would be too little too late.

Northeastern would finally convert on the empty net after five minutes of trying with barely over one second remaining in the game as the horn sounded on Maine's fifth and most visibly stunned loss of the season.

While it would be easy to point fingers at one individual performance or refereeing decision to take the sole blame for the loss, the Black Bears, from top-to-bottom, let the small margins that went against Maine compound and spiral out of control.

If a few pucks had bounced the other way, Maine could have certainly come out of Friday evening with a win under their belt. But the margin for error is so slim, especially in Hockey East, especially against a red-hot side like Northeastern.

However, these things do tend to even themselves out throughout a season.

In a year where so many things have gone right for Maine, a little adversity and opportunities to learn and grow won't hurt the Black Bears one bit.

Maine's bench looked stunned and crestfallen at the final buzzer. They knew they had the opportunity to win this game. They knew they let this one get away from them. Yet, this is the first such loss like this all year. And because of this experience, they now know what it takes to not let it happen again.

You can't win them all.

Better to learn these lessons on a February evening in Boston than an April night in St. Paul.

Of course, it's easy to be optimistic about this team and just consider this game a learning curve if they go ahead and take care of business Saturday in Amherst.

A losing streak is not what Maine needs to start playing around with at this point

A few miles north of Matthews Arena, UMass outlasted Merrimack in North Andover 3-2 Friday night. It will be a quick turnaround for both sides.

Boija was most likely always going to be between the pipes on Saturday, but a big performance from the freshman could solidify himself as Maine's new number-one in net for the rest of the season.

Maine will need to set the tone early Saturday night, but this time, they cannot let off their opponent's throats and allow them back in the game.

No pain, no gain, right?