The University of Massachusetts Minutemen would sweep the final regular season series of the year over the Maine Black Bears at a sold out Alfond Arena on Friday and Saturday night.
On Friday night- UMass would score four times in the third period, and would pull away for a 5-2 win to snap a seven game unbeaten streak for Maine. After Scott Morrow put the Minutemen up 1-0 just 55 seconds into the game, Lynden Breen would tally at 16:26 of the first period to even it 1-1 and that is where it would stay through two periods. Taylor Makar regained the lead for UMass at 2:27 of the third, and Owen Murray got the game winner 3:37 later to make it 3-1. After Makar scored again at 10:30, Breen got his second of the game with 5:18 left to play. The Minutemen put it away with an empty netter at 17:50. Five players had two points each in the win for UMass, and Cole Brady made 29 saves in net. Along with the two goals by Breen, Thomas Freel added two assists for Maine and Victor Ostman stopped 16 shots in the cage.
On Saturday and Senior Night- UMass got out to a 3-0 lead in the second period, and then had to hold on for a 4-3 victory to claim the weekend sweep. The Black Bears almost tripled the shots on goal over the Minutemen 38-14, but a pair of first period goals by Cal Kiefiuk had the guests up 2-0. Morrow scored at 4:35 of the second on the powerplay to extend the lead to 3-0. Nolan Renwick got Maine on the board with a powerplay goal of his own at 12:29 of the middle stanza, before a tally by Ben Poisson pulled them within 3-2 at 4:04 of the third period. Lucas Mercuri pushed it back to a two goal lead at 8:53, but the hosts had the answer again just 21 seconds later from Jakub Sirota. The Black Bears had some good chances down the stretch, and pulled Ostman with 1:45 left but couldn’t find the equalizer. Poisson and Sirota both had a goal and an assist in the loss, and Ostman made 10 saves. Kiefiuk had the two goals, Morrow had a goal and an assist, and Reed Lebster had three assists in the win for UMass. Brady made 35 stops, as the Minutemen end their regular season at 13-16-5, 7-14-3 in Hockey East. Maine honored senior players Jakub Sirota, Didrik Henbrandt, Ben Poisson, Dawson Bruneski, Justin Michaelian, and Matthew Fawcett.
Maine ends the regular season with a record of 15-15-5, 9-11-4 in Hockey East. The Black Bears finish #6 in the standings, and will host a first round playoff game at Alfond Arena on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against Vermont. They beat the Catamounts both times in the regular season in Burlington on December 2 and 3 by scores of 3-1 and 5-1.
Recap and photo by Chris Lessner
Photo- The Maine men’s ice hockey team hits the ice at the Alfond Arena prior to a game earlier this season
