Back to Class: There’s something wrong in Maine

We’re taking you “Back To Class” for our roundup of the weekend’s action in college hockey. Look for more college hockey on NBCSN Friday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET as Cornell takes on Harvard. 

There’s something very wrong with the Maine Black Bears.

Last season, they were an NCAA tournament team with a Hobey Baker finalist in forward Spencer Abbott. While Abbott is gone, fellow big scorer Joey Diamond is back again this season but coach Tim Whitehead’s team is very much in the dumper.

After getting dumped by No. 1 Boston College on Friday 4-2, Maine was shutout 4-0 by their hated rivals from New Hampshire dropping their record to an abysmal 1-8-0. Maine’s lone win? A 4-3 decision over Army in the Icebreaker Tournament — the same Army team who was beaten soundly by Penn State 5-0.

Maine’s problems might be too many to count right now. Junior goalie Dan Sullivan is off to a miserable start and backups junior Martin Ouellette (Columbus) and freshman Matt Morris have been worse. They’re 1/44 on the power play so far this season (2.3%) a rate that’s miserable at any level.

As for Diamond? The good news is he leads the team in scoring. The bad news? He has just one goal and three assists. If Maine doesn’t start fixing things soon, they could wind up missing the Hockey East playoffs, never mind the NCAAs.

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Series of the weekend: Boston University and North Dakota faced off in Grand Forks and made it worthwhile splitting the weekend set. North Dakota took down the Terriers on Friday night 4-2 while BU turned it back around on the formerly Fighting Sioux by the same score on Saturday. Can we see more inter-conference stuff like this, please?

Upset of the weekend: Give it up to MSU-Mankato for taking down the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday night scoring a 5-3 win over the No. 2 team in the country.

Zengerle out: Wisconsin will be without big scorer Mark Zengerle for five-to-six weeks with a broken finger. The Badgers have sputtered to start the season and this won’t help.

2014 Regionals: If you’re planning way ahead for the 2014 NCAA tournament, you’ll need to book a hotel in either St. Paul, Worcester, Bridgeport, Cincinnati to do it. Interesting seeing the NCAA go back to Cincy after having nightmarish issues there in 1996. Now the committee will hope Miami University can earn a spot to make it their home for the weekend.

(Photo: CollegeHockeyInc.com)