ORONO- The #6 Quinnipiac Bobcats got a game winning breakaway goal from Ethan Wyttenbach in the first period on Friday night, and held on to defeat Maine 2-1 in non-conference men’s hockey action at Alfond Arena. It was the home opener for the Black Bears in their 50th anniversary season.
Maine would put some extra energy into the Alfond early on, as they peppered the Quinnipiac net with the first eight shots on goal. They would get rewarded when UMass-Lowell transfer Lee Parks scored his second goal of the season on the powerplay at 2:39 of the first period. Max Scott and Will Gerrior got assists. Gerrior made the primary assist with a pass from behind the net to a wide open Parks standing alone in front of the net. Quinnipiac got even 2:10 after the Parks goal, as a beautiful give and go between Wyttenbach and Mason Marcellus resulted in a tally from Marcellus at 4:49 on their first shot on goal. Wyttenbach made it look easy on the breakaway game winner, as he went forehand to backhand with speed beating Albin Boija at 10:22 to give his team the lead for good despite being outshot 18-5 in the first period.
The Black Bears had several opportunities after that to at least draw even, including a second period breakaway from Judah Makway who had his opportunity on a backhander just miss over the top of the goal. They also had a 5 on 3 powerplay for 54 seconds early in the third, where they didn’t record a single shot on net. Graham Sward also made a defensive play clearing a puck out of the crease for the Bobcats, when a centering pass nearly crossed the goal line to tie it. After a goal by Jack Stockfish that would of extended the margin to 3-1 was disallowed after video review with 8:38 remaining, Maine had one more chance to find the equalizer. After pulling Boija for an extra attacker with 1:54 to go, QU would miss a game ending empty net goal on a couple of occasions. As the Black Bears brought the puck up the ice, Andon Cerbone was called for tripping to give the hosts another two-man advantage with 20.9 seconds showing on the clock. They never were able to get control to set something up in the attacking zone in those final seconds, as Quinnipiac cleared their zone twice that would run out the remaining time.
Wyttenbach led the way in the Quinnipiac victory with his game winning goal. He also added an assist. Jan Golicic, Elliott Groenewold, and Matthew Lansing would contribute one assist each. Christian Kirsch made 33 saves in net, as the Bobcats improved to 3-0. Gerrior and Scott had the assists on the Parks goal, and Boija stopped 20 shots in the Maine loss as they drop to 1-2 in the early going. The Black Bears went 1-6 on the powerplay. The teams will finish their two game series at Alfond Arena on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
