ORONO, Maine- Eduards Tralmaks scored a late second period goal and Jeremy Swayman made 30 saves on Friday night to lead the Maine Black Bears to a 3-1 win over the New Hampshire Wildcats in Hockey East men’s action before 4,787 fans at Alfond Arena.
Maine (6-3-2, 3-2-2 Hockey East) was outplayed for a good period and a half by the visitors from UNH. The Wildcats struck first when just seven seconds after a UNH powerplay ended, Kohei Sato found a loose puck at the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Sato fired from along the goal line to the right of Swayman from a bad angle and beat the goalie glove side at 7:27 of the first period to make it 1-0. In the second period UNH continued to have the better chances and won the puck battles but Swayman came up with several key saves to keep it just a one goal deficit.
At 15:23 of the second the momentum all of a sudden would swing in favor of the Black Bears on a fluke goal that tied it. Veli-Matti Tuiraniemi was shooting the puck from his own defensive blue line hoping to just get a clear. The dump in though would deflect off the stick of freshman AJ Drobot who was headed to the bench at the Wildcats blue line that changed the directory and would bounce through the legs of UNH goalie Mike Robinson to make it 1-1. The goal was the first in his college career for Drabot. “It was just an end of a shift, tried to get the puck deep and go to the bench. Little bit of puck luck I would say”, said Drabot. 4:36 later Tralmaks got the game winner. Ben Poisson won a faceoff to Adrien Bisson who lost control of the puck. Mitchell Fossier gained control and then found a wide open Tralmaks at Robinsons right post. Tralmaks one timed the feed into the net for a 2-1 Maine lead.
On the powerplay early in the third period the Black Bears put it away. Jakub Sirota set up Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup at the top of the left faceoff circle. Schmidt-Svejstrup one timed the feed in the top right corner of the net glove side on Robinson at 3:25. “It was right in my wheel house and I leaned into it and luckily it found a way into the net”, said Schmidt-Svejstrup. UNH would pull their goalie with a less little than three minutes to play but couldn’t get any closer. UNH Head Coach Mike Souza said, “I give give credit to Maine. I thought they wanted the game more than we did. They protected the puck better, caused more havoc than we did. We didn’t manage the puck well tonight, they beat us in the special teams game and they outcoached us. The result is obviously disappointing. But the result is more about Maine, they played well and deserved to win”. Maine did a great job defending the powerplay who is one of the tops in the league. UNH went 0-5, but with only three shots on goal with the extra man. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to in the first period. We played better in the second and we played a good third period. Credit to UNH they came out and played hard in the first period they were ready. We did real well on the penalty kill against one of the best powerplays in the country, and then we got a timely powerplay goal in the third period and I don’t think they got much after that”, said Maine Head Coach Red Gendron.
Maine went 1-3 with the powerplay on the night getting the third period marker from Schmidt-Svejstrup to provide breathing room. Bisson had two assists on the night, while Poisson also got credited with one on the Tralmaks game winner. UNH drops to 5-3-1, 3-2-0. Chase Stevenson and Liam Blackburn got assists on the Sato first period goal for the Wildcats. The two teams will square off again Saturday night at 7 p.m. to finish off the two game series.
The Maine men’s ice hockey team celebrates with goalie Jeremy Swayman on Friday, November 15, 2019 at Alfond Arena in Orono after their 3-1 Hockey East win over rival New Hampshire. Photo by Chris Lessner
