Things went from bad to worse for the Maine men’s ice hockey team Saturday night. Coming off a 1-0 loss Friday night where they had 40 shots on goal, the Bears fell in 3-0 first period hole and never recovered as Princeton finished off a two game sweep with a 7-3 win at Hobey Baker Rink in Princeton, New Jersey.
Derek Topatigh, Corey Andonovski, and Spencer Kryczka scored goals 3:55 apart in that first period to make it 3-0 Tigers. Jack Quinlivan scored his first career college goal just 36 seconds after the Kryczka marker for Maine to cut it to 3-1. Luke Keenan restored the three goal lead at 15:06, and ended the night for Maine starting goalie Jeremy Swayman who was replaced by Rob McGovern. Chase Pearson scored at the 18:34 mark on the powerplay for the Bears to cut it a two goal game again at 4-2.
The two teams swapped second period powerplay goals as Ryan Kuffner scored on for Princeton (5-8-2) at 2:18, and Alexis Binner got one back at 6:14 for the Black Bears. Max Veronnneau added a goal at 2:22 of the third for the home Tigers, and Andonovski got his second of the night at 18:54 to end the scoring.
Swayman took the loss and made nine saves on 13 shots in his 15:06 of action, while McGovern had 21 saves on 24 shots in relief in the final 44:54. Adam Dawe was the only multiple point scorer for the Bears with two assists. Princeton had multiple players with two points each in Andonovski with two goals, Veronneau a goal and an assist, while Matt Kellenberger, Liam Grande, Jackson Cressey, and Jake Paganelli had two assists each. Austin Shaw made 27 saves on 30 shots for the win in the Tigers net. Maine was 2-3 on the powerplay, while Princeton went 1-2.
Maine is now 5-9-2 and will host Colorado College at the Alfond Arena on Wednesday evening at 6 pm.
