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BURLINGTON, Vt. - Hoping to regain part of its identity this week No. 10 Vermont got back to the basics. The Catamounts were out hustled and out muscled in a loss at Merrimack last Friday according to head coach Kevin Sneddon. They don’t want that to happen again this season.

“We truly are a blue collar team,” Vermont co-captain Kevan Miller said. “We want to keep that as part of our identity.”

The Catamounts have shown they have the skill to beat high-tempo style teams like Denver and Boston College, but Coach Sneddon wanted to make one message clear this week.

“We still have to be one of the hardest working teams in the country.”

Vermont (2-2-0, 1-1-0 HEA) gets back to work this Friday at Alfond Sports Arena against Maine (1-5-0, 0-2-0 HEA) at 7 p.m. (Radio – WVMT, TV – WABI). It’ll be the fourth road game in the first five contests for the Catamounts.

Last year Vermont won all three meetings in the series. Each victory came by a single goal and the Catamounts had to overcome third period deficits in two of the wins against the Black Bears.

“I’ve always felt when you play at Maine or play Maine anywhere, you line up against that jersey you’re in for a tough game,” Sneddon said. “They are a very gritty team that not only has skill to hurt you offensively but they are a difficult team to play against because they work very hard.”

The Black Bears are 0-4 on the road but split a two-game series at home against nationally ranked Michigan State. Sophomore Gustav Nyquist, a fourth-round pick by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2008 NHL Draft, leads the team in scoring with four goals and 10 points in six games.

Nyquist, a native of Malmo, Sweden, spent part of the summer training with Vermont’s Tobias Nilsson-Roos. Sebastian Stålberg and Maine’s Theo Anderson will also be reunited as the two played together for the Frolunda Indians in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“It’ll be pretty fun playing against a couple of guys I know from Sweden,” Stålberg said.

The Black Bears have scored at least one power-play goal in each game and have converted at 27-percent (10-for-37) to rank sixth in the nation. The Catamounts gave up a pair of power-play goals in the loss against Merrimack after going 8-for-8 on the penalty kill in a win against BC on Oct. 18.

Vermont wants to regain the grit it displayed when it also blocked 18 shots against the Eagles because the Catamounts are expecting another tightly contested Hockey East road game this weekend.

“It’s going to be a tough one at Maine,” Miller said. “That rink is another place that’s hard to play at but it’s good to get another tough game right away to see if we learned from last week.”

NOTES: Friday’s game will be televised on WABI-TV throughout Maine … Vermont is 13-13-2 all-time against Maine … The Catamounts did not lose two Hockey East road games in a row all year in 2008-09 … Colin Vock is Vermont’s career leader in points against Maine with three goals and five points in nine games.