Game winning goal by Suthers leads Maine past Union College

Game winning goal by Suthers leads Maine past Union College

Keenan Suthers scored his second goal of the night and the game winner with 10:35 remaining on Saturday evening, leading the Maine Black Bears to a 4-3 victory over the Union College Dutchmen in men’s college hockey non-conference play at Alfond Arena in Orono.

Chaz Smedsrud got the scoring started to put Union up 1-0 at 3:22 of the first period. Maine would then control most of the play through the rest of the opening period and in the second. Suthers tied it at 6:43 of the first, and Ben Poisson made it 2-1 Black Bears at 13:19. The hosts extended it to 3-1 on a Nolan Renwick one timer just 2:05 into the middle period. The Dutchmen would fight back as Caden Villegas scored 1:38 into the third to slice the deficit in half, and Matt Allen deposited a rebound in front of goalie Victor Ostman at 7:22 to tie it 3-3. Suthers though found a rebound and slammed it in at 9:25 in what turned out to be the eventual game winner. Union had a golden opportunity to tie it or more when Donovan Villeneuve-Houle was called for elbowing and a game misconduct with 5:32 left to play, giving the visiting Dutchmen a five minute major powerplay. Maine though was able to kill it off and survive for their first regulation win of the season, improving to 2-11-4.

Ostman made 27 saves in the win. Renwick added a goal and an assist, Jakob Sirota had two assists, while Tristan Poissant, Villeneuve-Houle, Dawson Bruneski, Lynden Breen, and David Breazeale had one assist each. Connor Murphy made 38 saves in the loss for Union, who falls to 5-9-3 on the year. Villegas had one goal and two assists for the Dutchmen. Smedsrud also contributed a goal and an assist. Maine will be back in action on Friday, December 31 when they travel to Penn State to begin a two game non-conference series with the Nittany Lions.