The long losing streak for the University of Maine men’s hockey team at Schneider Arena in Providence, Rhode Island finally ended Friday afternoon. Ben Poisson had two goals and Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup scored an empty net goal in the third period that turned out to be the game winner, as the Black Bears knocked off #16 Providence 4-3 in Hockey East action.
Max Crozier put Providence (4-5-2) up first with a powerplay tally at the 11:16 mark of the first period. The score stayed the same until Poisson scored his first of the season at 4:43 of the second to make it 1-1. Michael Callahan put the Friars back on top 4:34 later, and PC had a 2-1 lead headed to the third. Sophomore Brady Gaudette would even it again with his first goal of his career for the Black Bears with 10:08 left in the game. Poisson put the visitors up for good 3-2 with his second of the day exactly four minutes later. Providence had a chance to extend, take the lead, and tie it with three powerplays in the third period alone but couldn’t convert. Schmidt-Svestrup scored into an empty net with 1:40 to go making it 4-2, but the Friars weren’t done as they got an extra attacker goal with the goalie pulled again when Uula Ruikka scored at 19:40. Callahan came close to tying it in the final seconds, almost completing an improbable PC comeback, when he rang one off the post behind Maine goalie Victor Ostman but the Bears hung on for their first win at Providence since December 4, 2010 (15 straight losses).
Ostman made 37 saves in the Maine win, as the Black Bears improved to 2-4-1 with their second straight win. Jakub Sirota, Veli-Mati Tiuraniemi, Adam Dawe, Lynden Breen, Adrien Bisson, John Mulera, and Eduards Tralmaks all had an assist each. Jaxson Stauber took the loss in net for Providence with 26 saves. The Black Bears went 0-3 on the powerplay, while the Friars were 1-4. The teams finish off their two games series on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
