ORONO- Freshman Josh Nadeau recorded a hat trick, and his brother Bradly Nadeau dished out three assists on Friday night as the #11 Maine Black Bears defeated #15 UNH 5-2 before a fourth straight sellout crowd of 5,043 fans at Alfond Arena in men’s Hockey East play.
UNH (7-4-1, 4-2-1 Hockey East) struck first for their only lead of the game just 11 seconds after a Maine powerplay expired, as Harrison Blaisdell beat Black Bears freshman goalie Alba Bouija with a wristshot at 13:35 of the first period. The hosts got even really late in the stanza on the powerplay, as Robert Cronin was called for tripping with 7.4 seconds left. Just about four seconds later, the Nadeau connection converted off the faceoff as Bradly Nadeau found Josh Nadeau who stepped inside the right faceoff circle and ripped a hard wrister blocker side past Wildcats netminder Jakob Hellsten.
Maine got on the board again to take the lead for good 23 seconds into the second period, as a Thomas Freel centering pass went off a UNH body in front and into the net. The Nadeau brothers again came up with the eventual game winner at 18:32. Bradly Nadeau made a great move down the left wing to get past his man, and then held onto the puck before sliding a backhanded pass under the legs of another Wildcats defender over to Josh Nadeau who buried a quick one-timer past Hellsten from the right faceoff circle into the top left corner of the goal. The Black Bears scored two more powerplay markers in the third to wrap up the win. Donovan Villeneuve-Houle tallied on a rebound right in front off a Brandon Chabrier shot at 5:55, and Josh Nadeau capped off his three goal night for his first career hat trick on a partial breakaway with a backhander stick side at 7:54 off another pass from his brother that made it 5-1 as Maine bounced back after being swept on the road at Boston University two weeks ago.
Along with the big night by Josh Nadeau and Bradly Nadeau in the victory- Chabrier, Brandon Holt, Harrison Scott, Nolan Renwick, and Lynden Breen all added one assist a piece. Bouija in his first collegiate start would make 18 saves. Maine went 3-7 on the powerplay, and improves their record to 7-3-1 overall and 4-2-1 in Hockey East. Stiven Sardarian had the other UNH goal on the powerplay late in the third period in the loss- while Cronin, Morgan Winters, and Alex Gagne each had an assist. Hellsten had 27 saves and the Wildcats went 1-5 with the extra man. Maine returns to action on Sunday at 5 p.m. when they welcome the UConn Huskies to Alfond Arena for another conference matchup.
Recap and videos by Chris Lessner/Photos courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco
