The University of Maine and Northeastern hockey teams line up for the national anthem prior to their Hockey East game in Boston on Friday, January 13, 2018. Photo by Chris Lessner.
BOSTON, Mass- The #10 Northeastern Huskies got two goals and an assist from the nations leading scorer, Adam Gaudette, en route to a 5-3 Hockey East win Friday night over #20 Maine in front of 2,013 fans at Matthews Arena.
Maine got going first in the opening period when Eduards Tralmaks buried a rebound on the powerplay at 9:41 to make it 1-0 Black Bears. Gaudette then scored at 11:16, just 13 seconds into a powerplay to tie the score for Northeastern, then buried another just 1:31 later even strength to put the Huskies up 2-1. Later at 15:34, Grant Jozefek also tallied a powerplay goal to make it 3-1. Jozefeks only took 17 seconds of powerplay time.
Maine (11-8-2, 5-5-1 Hockey East), kept battling and had some great opportunities that weren’t cashed in on in the second period. Bobby Hampton made it 4-1 Northeastern at 13:39, before Maine finally broke through again at 16:40 to make it 4-2, on a goal from Emil Westerlund.
Brady Keeper got Maine back within a goal, when he converted a great cross ice pass from Mitchell Fossier into the back of the cage at 3:40 of the third to make it 4-3. The Bears had plenty of opportunities to tie the game, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer. Dylan Sikura finished off a two on one breakout for Northeastern with just 1:24 left in the game to finish off the scoring.
Sikura also had two assists to go along with his late third period goal for Northeastern, who improves to 13-5-3, 9-3-1 Hockey East. Cayden Primeau made 30 saves in the Huskies net, and Northeastern was 2-5 on the powerplay. The Huskies are now unbeaten in eight straight outings (6-0-2).
Fossier was the only multiple point scorer for Maine with two assists. Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves, and the Bears went 1-4 with the extra man. Maine was on 7-0-2 stretch coming into Friday nights game.
The two teams finish off their two game series at Matthews Arena Saturday evening at 5 p.m.
UM 1 1 1- 3
NU 3 1 1- 5
