It was another busy Friday in UMaine sports as the Field Hockey team was in action at the America East tournament, while the men’s and women’s hockey teams hosted games in two different venues.
Out at Stanford, California at the America East Field Hockey Tournament, the Maine Black Bears rallied from behind to top California in double overtime in a quarterfinal matchup.
#15 Maine, in the field as the #2 seed in the East division, held a lead of 2-1 after the first half on goals from Brianna Ricker and Libby Reidl. Cal (5-12) then took a 3-2 advantage on markers from Femke Delissen and Yvie Lock. Casey Crowley got the equalizer with just 4:03 left in regulation off a penalty corner. Ricker was the hero scoring the winner at the 95:27 mark of the contest in the second overtime. Mia Borley made seven saves to get the win in the Black Bear cage.
Maine (15-4) will now face the host school #22 Stanford in a 3 pm Eastern Time semifinal on Saturday. The #1 West division Cardinal are 14-5, defeating UNH 4-3 in their quarterfinal game Friday. #1 East division seed Albany plays #3 West division Pacific in Saturday’s other semifinal, with the title game scheduled for 12 pm EST Sunday.
At the Alfond Arena in Orono, the Maine men’s ice hockey team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat UMass-Lowell 4-3 to pick up their first Hockey East win of the season.
Chase Blackmun and Sam Knoblauch had staked the Riverhawks to the 2-0 advantage early in the second period before Maine erupted. Chase Pearson scored goals at 1:13, and then on the powerplay at 4:02 to tie it 2-2. 40 seconds after the Pearson equalizer, Patrick Shea scored what proved to be the game winner to make it 3-2 Bears. Tim Doherty added another powerplay goal at 13:34 of the middle period to give the hosts a 4-2 lead.
Lucas Condotta scored with 2:26 left to get UML within a goal, but Maine was able to hold on to get to 1-1-1 in Hockey East and 3-3-1 overall. Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves in the win. Doherty added an assist, and freshman Adam Dawe added two assists on the night. Maine was 2-4 on the powerplay, while UML was 0-3. The Riverhawks drop to 3-4, 0-2 in Hockey East.
The two teams finish off the two game series Saturday night at the Alfond, with faceoff slated for 7:30 pm.
At Falmouth, Maine at the Family Ice Center the Maine women’s ice hockey team dropped their second consecutive game for the first time this year, as the Merrimack College Warriors took a 5-1 Hockey East win.
Dominique Kremer scored a lone first period powerplay goal to give MC a 1-0 lead, before markers by Felila Manu, Chloe Cook, and Katelyn Rae in the second helped the Warriors pull away for a 4-0 advantage. Ali Beltz scored the lone Bears goal just over halfway through the third, before Paige Voight added another MC goal just over three minutes later to end the scoring.
Maines Carly Jackson played the first 32:41 in net taking the loss, making nine saves on 12 shots. Loryn Porter played the final 27:19, and made six saves on eight shots. Maine was 0-5 on the powerplay, while Merrimack went 2-7. The Bears fall to 6-3, 2-3 in Hockey East, while MC improves to 7-1-2, 4-1-1.
The Bears return to the Alfond Arena Sunday at 2 pm, to host new Hockey East foe Holy Cross in the first ever matchup in women’s ice hockey between the two schools.
