AMHERST, MASS- The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team picked up another win Saturday night to finish off a weekend Hockey East sweep by defeating UMass 5-4 at the Mullins Center.
Will Merchant notched a pair of goals, Brian Morgan and Nolan Vesey both scored on the powerplay and Blaine Byron scored a key shorthanded goal in the third period as Maine picked up their first sweep at UMass since February 9 and 10th, 2001. Justin Rai also picked up an assist for his first career point as a Black Bear.
Dennis Kravchenko, Dominic Trento, Brennan Baxandall and Ivan Chukarov all scored for UMass who lost their 8th straight game.
Matt Morris picked up the win in net for Maine who is now 7-15-6 overall and 4-8-2 in Hockey East. Morris stopped 31 of 35 Minutemen shots. Henry Dill took the loss as UMass falls to 7-16-4 and 2-11-4 in league play. Dill stopped 41 shots as Maine outshot UMass 46-35. Maine was 2 for 4 on the powerplay while UMass was 0 for 5.
Maine returns to action at home next weekend as they host defending national champion Providence Friday and Saturday night. Faceoff is at 7:30 Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday.
