The Maine Black Bears had four different goal scorers Saturday afternoon, and built two three goal leads before holding off the Vermont Catamounts 4-3 in men’s Hockey East action at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, VT for their first win of the 2020-21 season.
The Maine powerplay, which was ranked first in Hockey East and second in the country entering the weekend, struck twice in the opening period. Eduards Tralmaks scored with the extra man at 7:22, and then Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup with another powerplay strike at 16:57 made it 2-0 Black Bears. Adam Dawe scored even strength 1:59 later for a three goal advantage at the end of the opening 20 minutes. Vermont got a goal back in the second period, before JD Greenway scored his first of the season 2:21 into the third for another three goal lead. The home Catamounts came charging back however, getting goals from Christan Evers on the powerplay at 9:57 and then even strength at 11:25 to make it a one goal game. It was the third and fourth goals of the weekend for Evers. Vermont would pull their goalie with 1:48 left for an extra attacker and had some good chances, including in the closing seconds as a loose puck was poked into the Maine net just as time expired but the goal was waved off due to goalie interference and the Black Bears escaped with a Hockey East split and improved to 1-4-1 on the season.
Freshman goalie Victor Ostman got his second career start and picked up his first win making 30 saves. Dawe added an assist to his goal, and John Mulera, Ben Poisson, Donavan Villeneuve-Ho, and Emil Westerlund all had one assist each. The Black Bears went 2-3 on the powerplay, while the Catamounts were 1-6. Vermont dropped to 1-5-2 in the loss. Maine is scheduled to face Providence next Friday and Saturday night.
