The University of New Hampshire Wildcats got a goal and two assists from Filip Engaras, and would score five of the final six goals of the game to pull away from the Maine Black Bears 7-2 in a men’s Hockey East opening round playoff played at Alfond Arena in Orono on Wednesday evening. It was the first home game of the season for Maine, and the first time they’ve played at the Alfond since March 6th of last season.
New Hampshire (6-13-3) had three powerplay opportunities in the first period alone and dominated shots on goal 17-7. Maine actually had the best chance early on about seven minutes in, as Lynden Breen had a rebound chance to the left of Wildcats goalie Mike Robinson but shot it up over the net. UNH went up 1-0 when a wristshot by Kalle Ericksson from the blue line found the back of the net at 17:00.
The Black Bears would kill off that carry over third powerplay opportunity for the ‘Cats to start the second, but on another extra man advantage UNH extended the lead. Eric McAdams found a rebound in front of Maine goalie Victor Ostman, and tucked it under his pads as he was falling to the ice to make it 2-0 at 2:30. In a flurry of action, Adrien Bisson put the home team on the board as he skated in down the right wing and fired one in from the bottom of the right faceoff circle at 3:16. The guests had the answer just 35 seconds later on a goal from Jackson Pierson to make it 3-1, before Breen scored on a pretty move and shot 1:28 after the Pierson marker to slice it again to one goal 3-2. The Bears had a good chance to tie the game with a powerplay of their own midway through the middle period, but Tyler Ward had other thoughts when he stole a puck at his own blue line and pushed it ahead to himself for a shorthanded break-in goal at 10:21 to take a two goal cushion to the intermission.
UNH took over in the final period to end any thoughts of a Maine comeback. A Black Bear turnover in front of their own net at 1:00 was slammed into the net by Engaras. Ostman was pulled from the net with 5:24 left in the game with a powerplay for a 5 on 3 advantage. Eduards Tralmaks had a good chance to cut the margin to a pair on the doorstep with a little less than five minutes left, but was stopped by Robinson. Luke Reid found an empty net shorthanded at 15:54 to make it 6-2, and then the Wildcats picked up their second powerplay goal of the night on a tally by Lucas Herrmann at 17:49 to finish off the scoring.
Ostman made 29 saves in the loss, as Maine ends their season at 3-11-2. Jakub Sirota, Jack Quinlivan, Simon Butala, and Adam Dawe all had one assist a piece. Robinson made 20 saves in the UNH win. Along with three points from Engaras, the ‘Cats also got two points from Pierson (one goal, one assist), along with Will Mackinnon and Ryan Verrier who had two assists each. Maine went 0-4 on the powerplay, while UNH was 2-6. The Wildcats move on to the Hockey East quarterfinals against the top conference seed and number one team in the country Boston College on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. The five goals scored in just 6:51 in the second period set a HE record for the fastest five goals in an opening round game (previous record was 10:39 set by UMass and Notre Dame on 3/6/16).
