ORONO- On a night that the UMaine Athletics Department welcomed back former Black Bear Nolan Renwick and honored the memory of his late mom Deena with a cancer awareness jersey auction, the home team finished off a memorable evening by getting a game winning goal from UMass-Lowell transfer Lee Parks to secure a 5-3 victory over #6 Quinnipiac at Alfond Arena to salvage a split of the weekend non-conference men’s hockey series.
The teams matched one another with two goals each in the first period. Loic Usereau had the opening goal at 7:42, as he poked a loose puck near the front of the net through the legs of Bobcats goaltender Rorke Applebee to make it 1-0 Black Bears. It didn’t take long for Quinnipiac to answer, as 1:13 later Jack Stockfish found the back of the net. Arizona State transfer Samuel Alfano put the hosts back ahead with his first career Maine goal on the powerplay at 13:48. The play started with a face-off win in the offensive zone. Lukas Peterson took a shot from the right point that was misdirected by Max Scott off the pad of Applebee, and came right to Alfano in the low slot who roofed home the rebound. QU made it 2-2 at 16:16 when a point shot from Jan Golicic deflected off a Black Bears stick and past Albin Boija.
The visiting Bobcats took their only lead of the night early in the second period. The QU transition game showed what they can do, getting it up to Ethan Wyttenbach who had a step on the defense into the attacking zone. Wyttenbach backhanded a pass to Mason Marcellus who fired a one-timer from the low slot beating Boija at 1:04. It was the fourth goal in four games for Marcellus. While it is something that the 2025-26 version of Maine men’s hockey struggled with alot, this years team though four games so far seems to not break when times get tough and kept fighting back. They would tie the score just 2:20 later when Parks and Owen Fowler hustled to try to track down a loose puck behind the Quinnipiac net, with Fowler getting to it and finding an open Isa Parekh who pinched down from his right defense position and lasered a one-timed shot from the slot past Applebee glove side inside the near post at 3:24 to make it 3-3. The game winner by Parks was a thing of beauty at 6:07 set up by Max Scott and Will Gerrior. Scott kept the puck in the zone with a pinch along the right side wall, and sent it to Gerrior in the left circle. Gerrior faked a shot and got Applebee out of position, before sending a perfect soft pass to Parks who was camped in front for the tip into the practically empty net. The Bobcats certainly had their chances to try to come back and even the score or better, including in that second period after the Parks go ahead goal when they had a powerplay, a breakaway, and had a shot clank off the post behind Boija all in a span of just a couple of minutes of game time. Boija was able to keep his focus and kept it out of his net for the remainder of the contest and made the saves he needed to make. QU was called for a two minute minor penalty with 2:07 left in the third period while still trailing 4-3. Despite being shorthanded, they would pull Applebee once they had control of the puck to even it up at 5 on 5, but that eventually led to an empty netter for Sully Scholle at 18:11 as the Black Bears put it away to snap a two game losing streak and pick up their first Alfond victory of 2026-27.
Wyttenbach and Dylan Edwards led Quinnipiac in points in the loss by registering two assists each. Wyttenbach had four points on the weekend that included a game winning goal and an assist on Friday night. Applebee made 24 saves. The Bobcats went 0-1 on the powerplay as they lose for the first time on the year dropping to 3-1. Scott had three assists for Maine. Parks (one goal, one assist), Gerrior (two assists), and Fowler (two assists) all had two points each. The Black Bears would go 2-3 on their powerplay chances, and Boija ended up stopping 20 shots that included nine in the second period alone. Maine is now 2-2 and goes into their early season bye week. They’ll return to action on homecoming weekend on Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th when they host Colgate at 7 p.m. both nights.
