The men’s and women’s hockey teams at Maine were again in action again Saturday, finishing up two game Hockey East series.
At Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine took an early 2-0 lead in the first period, but ended up settling for a 3-3 tie with #5 Northeastern in women’s Hockey East action.
Lydia Murray and Tereza Vanisova had scored 2:18 apart late in the first period to make it 2-0 Maine. Chloe Aurard scored the first of her two goals to get the Huskies on the board at 8:19 of the second period on the powerplay. The Bears regained their two goal lead on an Alyson Matteau powerplay goal at 14:26. Just 1:34 later, Northeastern cut it to one goal again when Mia Brown scored. Aurard tied it in the third period at 2:23, as the Huskies remain unbeaten in 11 straight games.
Carly Jackson made 30 saves in the Maine net, as the Bears see their record go to 7-6-1 overall and 3-6-1 in Hockey East. Britanny Bugalski made 32 saves for Northeastern, who go to 11-1-2, 10-0-2. Maine will host Dartmouth next Saturday and Sunday.
At Agannis Arena in Boston, Chase Pearson scored two goals and Jeremy Swayman made 40 saves as Maine was able to garner a split of the weekend Hockey East series with a 3-1 win.
Mitchell Fosier buried a rebound of a Pearson shot in the first period, his first of the season on the powerplay made it 1-0 Maine. In the second, Fossier set up Pearson on a beautiful backhanded cross ice fed as Pearson slapped home the one timer beating BU goalie Jake Oettinger stick side to increase the Bears lead to 2-0. Bobo Carpenter cut the Maine lead in half later in the second when he took advantage of a puck that bounced off the boards behind the Bears net and found his stick in the high slot at 9:50, beating Swayman upstairs. With the Terriers pressuring in the third period and then the goalie pulled with 1:02 left, Pearson found a loose puck and buried the empty net goal with a rink length shot with just 49 seconds left. Maine improves to 4-5-1, 2-3-1 in Hockey East with the win.
Swayman picked up the win in the Maine net, making 15 huge saves in the third period as BU pushed for the equalizer outshooting the Bears 15-3 in the final period. Oettinger made 22 saves in the BU loss. Maine was 1-1 on the powerplay, while BU was 0-5. Maine returns home to host Quinnipiac next Friday and Saturday at the Alfond.
