Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup scored two goals including a game winner in the third period, and Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves as the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team won their first Hockey East game of the early season with a 2-1 win over the Vermont Catamounts at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, Vermont on Friday night.
Schmidt-Svejstrup did the only goal scoring in the first 45:12 of the game when he gave Maine a 1-0 lead at 14:32 of the first period with his third goal of the season. Off a faceoff win in the Vermont zone Schmidt-Svejstrup took a feed from Adam Dawe and cut right in on the Catamounts goalie Stefanos Lekkas, and deeked him left to right and deposited it into the half empty cage. Vermont (1-2, 0-1 Hockey East) pressured through the middle period and the early stages of the third but Swayman shut the door. The Catamounts kept the pressure up including 1:57 of powerplay time to start the third period but couldn’t convert. The hosts finally broke through when Joey Cipollone scored at 5:12 to make it 1-1. Schmidt-Svejstrup would get the game winner at 13:39. After another Maine faceoff win in the Vermont zone on a powerplay, Schmidt-Svejstrup would walk to the top of the left faceoff circle and snap a wrister on a toe and drag move and find the net. The Catamounts pulled their goalie with 1:20 left but the Black Bears would hold them off for their second road win already of the 2019-20 season. Last season Maine didn’t win their second road game until the last day of November.
Levi Kleiboer, Tim Doherty, Dawe, and Emil Westerlund each had an assist for Maine in the win. The Black Bears improve to 4-2, 1-1 in Hockey East. Vermont senior goalie Lekkas made 31 saves in the loss. Maine was 1-4 on the powerplay, while Vermont went 0-5.
Maine now has a week off with just the lone game this weekend and returns home to host Boston University in a pair of league games at Alfond Arena next Friday and Saturday night.
