Maine men’s hockey topples Dartmouth to win the Ledyard Bank Classic

Published by %s
December 31, 2023

The #8 Maine Black Bears scored three second period goals on Saturday night, on their way to a 5-1 men’s hockey victory over Dartmouth College to win the 34th Annual Ledyard Bank Classic hosted by the Big Green at Thompson Arena in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Maine looked they had gotten an early goal as 1:25 into the first period Sully Scholle found Reid Pabich in the low slot. Pabich made a move on Dartmouth goalie Cooper Black from left to right and deposited the puck into the net, but the Big Green called for a video review and the Black Bears tally was disallowed after it was ruled they were offsides on the play. Dartmouth controlled a good portion of the opening 20 minutes outshooting Maine 13-7, but it remained scoreless.

Maine turned up the offense in the second period, and scored the first goal of the night 1:32 in. A shot by Donovan Villeneuve-Houle from the left faceoff circle was stopped by Black, but Harrison Scott backhanded the rebound into the upper left hand corner of the cage from the bottom of the right faceoff circle to make it 1-0. Pabich did get his first of the season to make up for the one that was disallowed earlier, as he converted off a pass from Josh Nadeau on a 3 on 1 breakout shortly after a Dartmouth powerplay had expired at 15:18 that turned out to be the game winner. Scholle made it 3-0 just 36 seconds later after a nice move around his defender and a beautiful shot from the low slot, as they dominated the middle period with a 16-6 shots advantage. Scholle got his second of the evening at 1:30 of the third on a breakaway to extend the lead to four. The Big Green finally got on the board at 12:56 of the final stanza on a marker from Cooper Flinton, before Lynden Breen finished the scoring at 16:29 off a feed from Josh Nadeau to give the Black Bears the tournament title and their sixth straight win.

Scholle (two goals), Pabich (one goal, one assist), Josh Nadeau (two assists), and Brandon Chabrier (two assists) all had two points each in the win for Maine who improved their record to 12-3-1. Victor Ostman made 22 saves in net. The Black Bears went 0-2 on the powerplay. Black made 26 saves in the loss for Dartmouth. The Big Green out of the ECAC went 0-5 on the powerplay in falling to 3-4-6 on the season. Maine will return home to Alfond Arena to play a home game for the first time since December 3 when they take on Colgate for a two game non-conference series next Friday and Saturday. Scheduled puck drop for both nights is set for 7 p.m.

Recap by Chris Lessner/Videos courtesy of Maine Ice Hockey on Twitter

 

Maine forward Lynden Breen skates past center ice during a win over Boston College earlier this season in Orono. The Black Bears beat host Dartmouth College 5-1 Saturday night to win the Ledyard Bank Classic, their sixth consecutive win. Photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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