The up and down whirlwind of a season reared its ugly head again on Friday night for #12 Maine men’s hockey, as #18 Providence College scored three powerplay goals and had five different goal scorers in easing their way to a 6-1 emphatic thumping of the Black Bears in conference action at Schneider Arena in Providence, Rhode Island.
After a great weekend at #7 Denver last weekend in earning a win and a tie with Pioneers, Maine didn’t seem ready on this night. After some early pressure from the guests in the first period, the Friars got goals from both Logan Sawyer and Hudson Malinoski at 11:24 and 15:43. The marker by Malinoski was on the powerplay and was the eventual game winner. The Black Bears had 1:49 of carryover powerplay time to start the second to try to cut the deficit in half, but would come up empty on what was their second extra man opportunity. Things went downhill fast from there. Albin Boija was beat in the same spot as the other two goals he had allowed to that point (high glove side), when Jonathan Fauchon put in the second powerplay goal of the evening for Providence at 4:37. Boija, who had played alot better in his most recent outings, was pulled after the Fauchon marker after allowing three goals on eight shots and freshman Mathis Rousseau manned the crease for the remainder of the contest. Rousseau made a couple big saves when it was still 3-0 to give his team some hope. But after a major penalty and game misconduct called against Brandon Chabrier that would eventually turn into a 5 on 3 after another penalty this time on Owen Fowler for goaltender inteference, PC really put some distance between the teams on the scoreboard on a goal from Roger McQueen on the powerplay at 15:48. Quinn Mantei made it 5-0 even strength at 16:29. Brandon Holt on a 5 on 3 scored the only goal for Maine 48 seconds into the third period to spoil the shutout bid for Friars backup goalie Jack Parsons. Parsons is playing for the #1 netminder in senior Philip Svedeback who is out 4-6 weeks with an MCL injury suffered last weekend. McQueen got his second of the night that finished the scoring at 12:51.
Providence put a total of 13 players on the scoresheet in the win. Julius Sumpf led on points with three assists. McQueen had two goals, Fauchon registered one goal and one assist, while Graham Gamache also contributed two assists. Parsons made 26 saves to help his team improve to 10-7-2 and 5-3-1 in Hockey East. The Friars went 3-7 on the powerplay. Rousseau in relief of Boija would make 15 stops on 18 shots in the defeat for Maine. Justin Poirier and Josh Nadeau each had an assist on the goal from Holt. The Black Bears went 1-6 on their extra man opportunities, and had their five game unbeaten streak snapped in dropping to 12-8-2 and 6-6-0 in the conference. The finale of the two game series is on Saturday at 6 p.m., in what feels like a must win for Maine.
Featured photo is courtesy of UMaine Athletics
