CHESTNUTHILL, MA- Miguel Marques scored twice, including an early first period game winner, and freshman netminder Mathis Rousseau recorded his first career shutout as #10 Maine earned a weekend split with a 3-0 victory over #15 Boston College at Conte Forum in men’s Hockey East action on Saturday night.
Marques took advantage of a Boston College turnover at 1:32 of the first period to score what was the eventual game winner. A mishandling of the puck by the Eagles behind their own net, squirted its way into the low slot to the stick of Marques who made no mistake in wristing in the loose change stick side on goaltender Louka Cloutier. Josh Nadeau would make it 2-0 shorthanded at 11:10. Charlie Russell won the race for a puck in the BC offensive zone on the left wing, and drew three Eagles defenders his way. After collecting it, Russell was able to locate Nadeau with a cross-ice pass uncovered for the tap-in tally at the far post. It was the second shorthanded goal of the season for Nadeau and the fourth for Maine, tying them for third in the country.
Meanwhile, Rousseau was doing his thing in between the pipes in his third collegiate start making two or three Grade A saves in the first period alone and many other stops to keep the momentum for his team throughout the evening. Maine did a much better job at limiting odd man rushes or having any defensive letdowns like it did in their 7-3 defeat on Friday night when junior Albin Boija was in net. And when they did, Rousseau was there to thwart those Eagles chances. Marques added some insurance with a rebound goal of a Sully Scholle shot at 8:53 of the third period. It was the first career two goal game for the freshman forward. Boston College would pull Cloutier with 3:20 left for an extra attacker, but Rousseau again was up for the challenge in notching the shutout. In his previous two starts, Rousseau had allowed four goals in a 4-0 road loss to Quinnipiac on October 18th and five in a wild 8-5 Black Bears home win over Boston University on November 1st. Earlier in the final period, Maine freshman forward Jeremy Langlois took a hit and lost his balance falling hard into the boards. Langlois was down for several minutes before being taken off the ice on a stretcher and didn’t return to the game. There is no word yet on any official injury status on Langlois, although head coach Ben Barr said postgame that he (Langlois) was moving and talking when being transferred off the playing surface.
Boston College went 0-3 on the powerplay in having their five game win streak snapped. Cloutier made 16 saves. The Eagles are now 7-5-1 and 5-3-0 in Hockey East. Rousseau made 21 stops for Maine, and was the first Black Bears goalie to shutout BC at Chestnut Hill and lead his team to a victory since Garth Snow did it in 1991. It it also the first blanking by Maine over the Eagles overall since 2004. Russell, Scholle, and Thomas Freel registered one assist each. They also went 0-3 on the powerplay in winning for just the second time at Conte Forum in their last nine games (2-6-1). Maine improves to 8-5-1 and 5-3-0 in league play, and now heads into their Thanksgiving break. The Black Bears return to action on Friday and Saturday, December 5th and 6th when they host rival UNH at Alfond Arena with both contests set for a 7 p.m. faceoff.
