The Maine Black Bears men’s hockey team carried the play most of the night on Friday, but a second period powerplay goal and a 40 save performance from Ryan Ferland led Princeton to a 1-0 win at Hobey Baker Rink in Princeton, New Jersey.
Ryan Kuffner helped break a scoreless tie for the home Tigers with a powerplay goal 8:11 into the middle period. Turns out that is all Princeton would need in breaking an eight game winless streak (0-7-1), with their last win coming back on November 10. The Tigers are now 4-8-2.
Maine (5-8-2) had many great opportunities only to be turned away by Ferland. The best came when the Bears went on a powerplay with 1:58 left in the game trying to tie it up. With goaltender Jeremy Swayman pulled for an extra attacker and Maine working on a 6 on 4 advantage with 38 seconds left, Brady Keeper took a shot from the right point that hit Ferland and bounced straight down into the crease area. Both Eduards Tralmaks and Patrick Shea had shots at shoving the puck past an out of position Ferland, but the goaltender sprawled out and kept it under him getting a whistle to stop play, preserving the lead and just a short time later a win.
Swayman made 27 saves on the night in the loss. Maine was 0-1 on the powerplay getting their only chance late in the game, while Princeton was 1-2. The Bears attempted 86 shots with 40 going on net, while the Tigers tried 55 with 28 on goal. The two teams will finish their two game series Saturday night at 7 pm.
