ORONO, Maine- The last time the Maine mens ice hockey team beat Boston University was at Frozen Fenway back on 1/11/14. Since then it has been a six game winless streak against the Terriers. That streak ended Friday night. Freshman Canon Pieper had a goal and an assist, and freshman goalie Jeremy Swayman made 40 saves to lead the Bears to a 5-2 Hockey East win at Alfond Arena over the 18th ranked Terriers before 4,532 fans.
Despite a quick jump by Maine in zone pressure, BU got the opening goal from Kasper Kotkansalo 7:50 into the first to make it 1-0. Brady Keeper evened the score with a wrist shot from the point on the powerplay 2:30 later to make it 1-1. Pieper got his first career goal on a breakaway, shortly after a BU powerplay had come to an end. The goal at 4:37 of the second made it 2-1 Maine. Brendan Robbins took a feed from Pieper in front of the BU net 2:29 later extending the Bears lead to 3-1.
BU (5-7-1, 3-4-2 HE), got within a goal when Logan Cockerill scored at the nine minute mark. It remained 3-2 Maine after two periods. BU has several chances down a goal, as the Terriers had six powerplay chances on the night, but because of Swayman and the Maine defense they weren’t able to cash in on any (0-6). Maine head coach Red Gendron said, “We had some penalties we had to kill. He (Swayman) made alot of great saves. He’s a big goalie as well. I think he forced them to miss some passes. He was a very good player for us, and we got alot of great efforts tonight from alot of guys”.
Patrick Holway scored at 7:45 of the third, and Patrick Shea added an empty net goal with just under two minutes left to secure the Black Bear win. Maine is now 4-5 overall, 3-2 in Hockey East play. Maine was 1-3 on the powerplay on the evening. Max Prawdzik suffered the loss in the Terriers net making 23 saves. “It was a good win. We had a good night on special teams, particularly the penalty kill. We had a good night on defense I thought, despite giving up 42 shots. Good win for our team. We move forward to tomorrow night”, added Gendron.
The two teams will finish off the two game series Saturday night in Portland at the Cross Insurance Arena. Face off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
