ORONO- The #6 University of Maine men’s hockey team has now gone eight straight games without scoring more than two goals versus an opposing goalie. Friday night though that was just enough. Senior forward Taylor Makar notched a game winning tally late in the second period, and added an empty net goal late in the third as the Black Bears defeated Northeastern 3-1 in conference play before a crowd of 4,905 at Alfond Arena.
Maine had to do some shifting with their lines with only 11 available forwards as they were missing Ross Mitton (suspension), Charlie Russell (upper body injury), Anthony Calafiore (lower body injury), and Lynden Breen (broken fibula) who all didn’t play. Aidan Carney, son of former Black Bear and NHLer Keith Carney, played his first game since March 8, 2023 with defenseman Liam Lesakowski also stepping up to play as a forward on that line. The first period was pretty even, as both teams had some great chances. Lesakowski hit one off the crossbar behind Northeastern goaltender Cameron Whitehead, but none of his teammates could sweep home the rebound. The Huskies best chance was a 2 on 1 break with Cristophe Tellier trying to set up Vinny Borgesi for a one-timer, but Maine defenseman Frank Djurasevic made a great backcheck to strip it off the stick of Borgesi as the game remained scoreless.
Maine broke the deadlock shorthanded at 1:19 of the second period. Josh Nadeau took a Northeastern turnover throwing a puck out front from along the farside boards, and Owen Fowler was in the right spot getting a piece of it from the low slot and deflecting it past Whitehead for a 1-0 lead.
The lead only lasted just under four minutes, as the Huskies would even the score at 5:07. Eli Sebastian took advantage of a turnover by Oskar Komarov at center ice, and stepped over the blue line and released a hard wristshot from the high slot that beat Albin Boija over the shoulder glove side. Makar picked a good time to come through with his eighth of the season that turned out to be the game winner at 19:30 of the stanza. The transfer forward would tip-in a point shot from Frank Djurasevic for the 2-1 advantage. Maine allowed three powerplays to Northeastern in the third period in a span of 6:30, but the defense and Boija did just enough to hold on and Makar put it away with an empty goal with 55 seconds left.
Along with the two goals from Makar, Nadeau and Djurasevic had two assists each in the win for Maine. Nolan Renwick also added a helper. Boija made 20 saves, and the Black Bears went 0-2 on the powerplay. Sebastian provided the only offense in the loss for Northeastern with his first career goal that was unassisted. Whitehead stopped 30 shots, and the Huskies went 0-5 on their powerplay chances in falling to 9-12-3 and 4-9-3 in Hockey East. Maine is now 16-5-3 and 8-3-3 in conference play. The Black Bears will have an off day but will stay at home to host #20 UMass on Sunday at 4 p.m. The Minutemen come to Orono with a record of 14-10-2 and 5-7-2 in the league and are riding a four game win streak.
Photos by Anthony DelMonaco/Highlight videos courtesy of MaineIceHockey on X/Recap and postgame video interviews by Chris Lessner
