Members of the University of Maine and RPI hockey teams line up for the national anthem prior to their game Friday, October 7th, 2016. Photo by Chris Lessner.
ORONO, Maine- Freshman forward Mitchell Fossier had a hat trick and two other freshmen scored goals Friday night to lead the University of Maine Mens Ice Hockey team to a 5-1 victory over visiting RPI in the season opener Friday night before 3,859 fans at Alfond Arena.
Freshman Patrick Shea opened the scoring just over six minutes into the opening period and Fossier scored his first of the night just 1:26 later to give the Black Bears an early 2-0 advantage which they held through the first period.
Penalty trouble in the second period gave RPI some momentum and carry in play. But sophomore goalie Rob McGovern made some key saves and Fossier scored his second of the night 7:30 into the period on a set faceoff play to make it 3-0.
Maine would extend to a 4-0 lead two minutes into the third period as freshman Chase Pearson scored his first collegiate goal on a beautiful pass on a 4 on 1 break from Nolan Vesey. RPI would get on the board just 45 seconds later on the powerplay on a shot from the point by Jared Wilson that McGovern was screened on. Fossier finished off his memorable first game of his career at 14:45 to notch the hat trick and send Maine to the opening game win.
Maine outshot RPI 36-30 in the game with McGovern making 29 saves to get the win. Chase Perry took the loss in net with 31 saves. Pearson also had an assist to go along with his goal for two points on the night and Vesey had three assists as well. On special teams, RPI was 1 for 9 on the powerplay but only five shots while Maine was 0 for 7 with seven shots on the night.
RPI Head Coach Seth Appert spoke about the Maine effort after the game, “Congrats to Maine, I thought they were fantastic. Similar to what I expected, just didn’t do a good enough job getting our guys to understand. I know how good of a coach Red (Gendron) is and I know how storied of a program this is and I know how much pride they have in their program. I expected a real spirited and passionate effort from them, and they gave it. I thought they were fantastic”.
Maine Head Coach Red Gendron also said, “I think it is pretty clear, we came out hard in the first period and jumped on them. You build a 2-0 lead and then we start taking some more penalties in the second period. Alot of it was just sloppy play on our end. Turning the puck over and looking for cookies instead of maintaining defensive posture and letting the puck and play come to us. And the result was them applying pressure by us taking penalties. But at the same time our goalie made some important saves, killed off a 5 on 3, that was an important part of the game. This was a great win for the University of Maine Black Bears but tomorrow is a new day”.
Maine and RPI finish their two game series Saturday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
RPI 0 0 1- 1
UME 2 1 2- 5
Shots on goal- RPI 30 Maine 36
Win- McGovern (1-0-0) Loss- Perry (0-1-0)
Time of game- 2:00
