ORONO- Too many penalties and a costly mistake in the second period hurt the #10 Maine men’s ice hockey team on Friday night, as Colgate University stormed into Alfond Arena and skated to a 3-2 non-conference upset win in front of a charged up homecoming crowd.
Colgate jumped on top just 3:05 into the first period on the powerplay on a shot from the point by Michael Neumeier that deflected past off a Maine player in front and eluded goalie Albin Boija. Oskar Komarov got the Black Bears even at 9:43. Komarov received a pass in the low slot after a rush up the left wing by Thomas Pichette and wristed one past Raiders netminder Reid Dyck. Freshman Justin Poirier gave the hosts their only lead of the night just under three minutes later with his fourth goal of the season, cleaning up a rebound of a Brandon Holt shot on the powerplay at 10:42.
Colgate tied it back up on a bad turnover by Maine freshman Miguel Marques early in the second period. Marques along the boards in his own zone threw the puck into the middle of the ice that was picked off by Raiders forward Robby Newton. Newton took a couple of strides into the high slot and fired one past Boija glove side at 3:41. The guests stunned the sold-out crowd when they scored on the powerplay on a 2 on 1 breakout at 15:02 for the eventual game winner. Max Nagel chose to take the shot on the odd man rush, and the shot looked to deflect off the stick of Jeremy Langlois and into the back of the net from the right faceoff circle. Maine (2-2-1) had some good looks in the third period, especially late with Boija pulled for an extra attacker with 1:31 remaining. The best chance was by Max Scott in the final 30 seconds, who had the goalie out of position while in front but Dyck got a piece of the shot with his pad to secure the victory for Colgate.
Boija made 12 saves in the loss. Holt was the only multiple point scorer with an assist on each of the goals by the Black Bears. Maine went 1-2 on the powerplay, and the loss snaps their 10-game Alfond Arena unbeaten streak (8-0-2) that dates back to last season including their Hockey East quarterfinal win over UMass-Lowell. Neumeier had a goal an assist for 2-2-1 Colgate. Dyck had 25 stops in net, and they went 2-5 on their powerplay opportunities including the biggest one on the game winner by Nagel. It is their first win for the Raiders in Orono since January 9, 2016. The two teams cap off the weekend series on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Featured photo by Anthony DelMonaco
