MANCHESTER, N.H. — Maine hockey coach Red Gendron called his timeout just 2 minutes and 10 seconds into Wednesday’s game against New Hampshire.
And it was already too late.
The Wildcats jumped the Black Bears early and romped to a 7-0 victory before an announced crowd of 5,734 at Verizon Wireless Arena. It left Maine 0-3-1 in its four consecutive meetings with its rival.
It was the worst loss of a disappointing season for the Black Bears (4-11-4).
“All I have to say about the game is that we didn’t compete, and at the end of the day, I accept responsibility for that,” Gendron said after his team was outscored 20-9 in December, all at the hands of New Hampshire (8-6-4).
The Wildcats scored goals 15 seconds apart to prompt the Gendron timeout. The lead just kept growing. Seven New Hampshire skaters scored, none of them Andrew Poturalski, who leads the nation with 17 tallies.
Maine went through both goaltenders. Matt Morris surrendered the first five goals on just 16 shots. Sean Romeo came in at the 7:10 mark of the second period to play out the string on a game that was long decided.
“It was great to see the other lines contribute, and they moved the puck well. I thought our transition game was very, very good right from the start,” New Hampshire Coach Dick Umile said.
On Tuesday in Portland, the Black Bears went down 2-0 after one period, but cut into two-goal deficits four times before falling 5-4. That effort was missing Wednesday.
The Wildcats got a power-play goal from Dan Correale at 19:28 of the first period to grab a 3-0 lead and were never threatened.
“The third goal was important because we did that (Tuesday) night, going up by two. We wanted to make sure we didn’t let them back in,” Umile said. “So that was good to get the two quick ones, but the third one, it was, ‘Here we go, maybe.’ “
There was no “maybe” about it.
New Hampshire built a 6-0 lead after two periods and then outshot a sleepwalking Maine team 19-6 in the third.
The Black Bears killed off a five-on-three New Hampshire advantage in their lone positive moment of the game.
But defenseman Dan Renouf was whistled for cross-checking New Hampshire goaltender Danny Tirone minutes later, a move that drew howls from the crowd and glares from the Wildcats.
It was Maine’s sixth penalty.
New Hampshire scored its final goal on the ensuing power play.
Maine’s previous worst loss was 6-0 against Massachusetts-Lowell in its home opener.
After that game, Gendron found things to praise about his team.
Not so Wednesday. Asked if there was any aspect of the Black Bears’ play that was sufficient, he replied: “No.”
Neither would Gendron allow that his players may have been worn out from constantly playing from behind the night before.
“To me, fatigue is a state of mind. If you’re strong enough mentally, you overcome that,” he said.
After Tuesday’s game, Gendron said that “soft people” would point to the fact that his team had continually battled back.
On Wednesday, he had to face the possibility that those “soft people” were actually located in his own locker room.
“People would say we weren’t ready to play and we didn’t battle back,” Gendron said. “For me, it was not consistent with what’s expected us of in Maine hockey.”
The good news for the Black Bears is that the New Hampshire portion of their schedule is over. And the calendar is about to turn from a dismal 2015.
Maine hosts Colgate next weekend to start its 2016 slate.
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