After a total of six goals were scored during the third period of a comeback win by the #7 Maine Black Bears on Friday night, it only took two goals total to decide a winner on Saturday afternoon. Tabor Heaslip scored the only one that ended up mattering 22 seconds into the third period, as the University of Connecticut skated to a 2-0 men’s Hockey East victory before a crowd of 9,428 at the XL Center in Hartford. The loss snaps a nine game Black Bears unbeaten streak.
Maine dominated the first period, with a shots on goal advantage of 13-2 but UConn goalie Arsenii Sergeev stood tall all afternoon to keep them scoreless. The Huskies turned the momentum around in the second period, outshooting the Black Bears 12-3. Josh Nadeau had one of the better chances for the guests when he rang one off the post just over a minute in. Shortly after, a shot by Matthew Wood wasn’t fully controlled by Maine freshman netminder Albin Boija but Jake Richard was unable to get much on the rebound attempt. UConn nearly broke the scoreless tie when they got the first powerplay of the game at the 10:50 mark, but a beautiful back door pass on to the stick of Chase Bradley to the left of Boija was shot wide. The Black Bears got their first man advantage with 2:09 left in the stanza, but couldn’t get much going as it remained 0-0 at the end of 40 minutes.
The game winner by Heaslip was a nice play, as he took it behind the net from right to left and wrapped it around on a backhander that eluded Boija just 22 seconds into the third period before alot of the 9,000+ fans settled back into their seats from intermission. Joey Maldowney added some insurance at 4:15 that would end the scoring. Boija did his best to keep Maine in the game, as later in the period with just over eight minutes left after a Black Bears turnover he got a piece of a shot on a 2 on 0 breakout by Bradley and Matthew Wood. Despite pulling the goalie for an extra attacker with 2:45 left, they just weren’t able to breakthrough as they were held to just 14 shots on net over the final two periods after the good pressure in the first in being shutout for the first time this season.
Boija ended up with 17 saves in the loss for Maine. Liam Lesakowski, Brandon Chabrier, Josh Nadeau, and Bradly Nadeau each had three shots on net to lead the team. The Black Bears went 0-1 on the powerplay, as their record falls to 14-4-2 and 6-3-1 in Hockey East. Along with the goals from Heaslip and Maldowney in the win for UConn, Tristan Fraser would add one assist. Sergeev stopped all 27 shots he faced. The Huskies would go 0-2 with the extra man in improving to 9-10-2 and 5-7-1 in conference play. Maine returns home next Friday and Saturday to take on the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks at Alfond Arena. Faceoff time for each night is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Recap by Chris Lessner
The University of Maine men’s hockey team lines up for the national anthem prior to their 7-3 win over UConn at the Alfond Arena on December 3. The Black Bears would fall 2-0 to the Huskies on Saturday afternoon in Hartford, snapping their nine game unbeaten streak. Photo by Chris Lessner
