Both the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams were in action in Hockey East on Friday night, as the women’s team hosted Vermont at the Alfond Arena and the men’s team was on the road at UMass.
At the Alfond Arena in Orono, the visiting Vermont Catamounts got a third period game winning goal from Corinne McCool to pick up a 3-2 win over Maine in women’s Hockey East play.
Tereza Vanisova scored 1:52 into the game to give Maine an early 1-0 lead, but the Catamounts scored the next two to take the lead. Kristina Shanahan tallied at 17:53 of the first to tie it, and then Ali O’Leary put UVM up 2-1 at the 8:44 mark of the second. That lead only lasted 59 seconds though as Maines Ida Kuoppala tied it at 9:43. The game winner from McCool came at 10:59 of the third on the powerplay on assists from Therese Schafzahl and Val Caldwell. The Black Bears pulled goalie Carly Jackson late but couldn’t come up with the equalizer with the extra skater. Vermont improves to 6-7-5, 3-5-3 in Hockey East. Maine is now 7-8-2, 4-6-1.
Jackson made 22 saves in the loss for Maine, while Natalie Ference made 10 in the Vermont win as the Black Bears were outshot 25-12. Nicole Pateman, Vendula Pribylova, and Brittany Colton had the Maine assists. Vermont was 1-5 on the powerplay, while Maine was 0-3. The two teams play game two on Saturday at 2 p.m.
At the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts the #11 UMass Minutemen scored three first period goals and skated to an easy 5-1 win over Maine in men’s Hockey East action.
Maine (8-6-3, 4-5-2 Hockey East) had some good chances early on and had two odd man opportunities about 4:30 in but were turned away. UMass then made a rush up the ice 3 on 1 and Oliver Chau ripped one past Black Bear goalie Jeremy Swayman at 4:54 to make it 1-0. Just 1:09 later Bobby Trivigno on the powerplay made it 2-0 Minutemen. The run of goals continued on a delayed penalty on Maine when Marc Del Gaizo scored at 14:50 for a 3-0 advantage. 16 seconds into the second period Ty Farmer made it 4-0. The Black Bears late in the second got a 5 on 3 powerplay and two seconds into that Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup ripped on in from the point off a faceoff win at 17:57 to cut it to 4-1. The Bears couldn’t convert on the ensuing 5 on 4 powerplay however. John Leonard finished off the scoring with a goal at 16:22 of the third period for UMass (10-4-1, 5-3-1).
Adam Dawe and Tim Doherty had assists on the Schmidt-Svejstrup goal for Maine in the loss, and Swayman made 37 saves as the Black Bears were outshot 42-21. Matt Murray made 20 stops to lead Massachusetts. Maine was 1-5 on the powerplay, while UMass went 1-4. The two teams play again Saturday night at 7 p.m.
