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BRUNSWICK — Friday night’s scrimmage at Bowdoin College’s Sid Watson Arena was a chance for the retooled University of Maine men’s hockey team to make a first impression in a game situation against rival New Hampshire. A first impression on its fans, and its coach, Ben Barr.

That impression is that there’s a lot of work to do, but it’s early October. There’s a lot of time to do it.

“It’s not surprising based on what we’ve seen so far. It is what it is. It starts with our work ethic, and as a whole, we’re just not there as a team,” Barr said after a 2-2 tie that ended with UNH taking the shootout win.

Coming off its first Hockey East title in 21 years and a second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, expectations for the Black Bears are high.

Thirteen of the 28 players on Maine’s roster are new to the program. Two-thirds of Friday’s top line were newcomers: center Max Scott, brother of last season’s top scorer, Harrison Scott, is a transfer from Brown, Maine’s only dip into the transfer portal this season. On Scott’s left wing was freshman Justin Poirier; to his right was Josh Nadeau, a returning junior.

The second line also included one returning player, captain Thomas Freel at left wing, with freshman Jaden Lipinski at center and freshman Miguel Marques on the right. The lone line made up completely of returning players was the unit of Oskar Komarov centering Owen Fowler and Charlie Russell.

Many of the newcomers joined the Black Bears from the junior hockey ranks, where they’re used to trying to make a play every time they touch the puck. Friday’s game was a stark lesson that college hockey doesn’t work that way, Barr said. Defenders are on top of you quickly.

“If you think you’re going to stand still and stick handle, you’re going to look foolish out there,” Barr said.

With the Black Bears still very much in the getting to know you phase of the season, it was a game full of missed connections and things that were almost great plays. A cross-ice pass from the left by Nadeau to Lipinski early in the first period almost connected for a shot.

Early in the third period, Poirier spun away from a check and had a clear lane to the net. He didn’t have the puck, though, which squirted away. Later in the third, Russell made a pass to Marques, alone at the right post. His shot went high, over the crossbar.

These are opportunities that will happen a lot over the course of the regular season, and many of them will be converted into goals. Tonight, skating against an opponent for the first time, they did not. That disjointed play can’t become habit.

“It’s not just players. It obviously starts with me,” Barr said. “There’s a little bit of an arrogance of how we’ve done things this summer, and some of that is just human nature. You go in, and everyone tells you how great things were last year, and you win a championship even though you lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Everyone’s ‘Hey, we’ve got all these great players coming in. Everything’s great.’ Maybe you’re just not willing to sacrifice in the same way you did last year and the year before. The new guys just don’t know how hard it’s going to be at this level.”

One of the newcomers, defenseman Simon Motew, scored Maine’s first goal at 18:11 of the second period. Motew took a hard shot from the point, and it rang off the inside of the right post as it went in, shortly after the Wildcats took a 2-0 lead.

Another newcomer, Scott, scored a power-play goal at 11:09 of the third to tie the game, looking very much like his brother, who scored six power-play goals for the Black Bears last season.

Barr said he was happy with the way his team fought back, and with the way his goaltenders played. Albin Boija and newcomer Mathis Rousseau split the game, and Rousseau made the save of the night on Josh Player’s breakaway midway through the third period.

Highlights were hard to find, though, in a game that for Maine never felt on track. The Black Bears have a lot of newcomers with talent who need to learn how to be talented college hockey players.

The first lesson came at Watson Arena. Another comes next Friday night at home against Holy Cross.