ORONO, Me- Junior goaltender Jeremy Swayman stopped 39 of 41 shots and Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup scored a game winning third period goal Friday night as the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team defeated Boston University 4-2 in Hockey East action at the Alfond Arena before 3,447 fans.
Maine (5-2, 2-1 Hockey East) jumped to the lead early on the powerplay. Schmidt-Svejstrup worked the puck down low and sent a pass from the left faceoff circle over to a wide open Ben Poisson on the right who wired a one timer into the net at 4:19. It was the first goal as a Black Bear for Poisson who transferred from Niagra. The Black Bears doubled the lead to 2-0 at 16:52 when Samuel Rennaker streaked in down the left side and fired one that beat BU goalie Sam Tucker off the right post.
The Terriers cut the lead to just a goal in the second period when Jamie Armstrong cut in on a 2 on 1 breakout and beat Swayman at 10:54 to make it 2-1. That lead would hold until the midway point of the third period when Schmidt-Svejstrup got his fifth of the season. Poisson did a great job of holding the puck in the BU zone bouncing off a couple checks and finding Schmidt-Svejstrup to the left of Tucker who one timed a shot that beat the goalie blocker side at 9:55. The visitors down by a pair pulled Tucker for the extra man with three minutes to play. On a deflection off a Maine stick near the front of the net Patrick Curry slammed it in from between the circles to cut it to a one goal game again with still 1:50 to play. But just 33 seconds later with Tucker pulled again and a faceoff in the Black Bears zone, Maines Jack Quinlivan won the faceoff and got it to Tim Doherty who sent the puck into the empty cage on the other end to ice the win.
Swayman made several key saves especially when Boston University carried play in the second period and kept his team up by a goal. Schmidt-Svestrup and Poisson both had a goal and an assist, while Jakub Sirota had two assists in the Maine win. Quinlivan, Ryan Smith, and Simon Butala also added assists. Matthew Quercia added two assists for BU (2-2-2, 1-1-1), and Tucker made 31 saves in the loss. The Black Bears have now won back to back Hockey East games after getting drubbed 7-0 at Providence in their opener.
The two teams finish off their two game series on Saturday night. Faceoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Maines Ben Poisson faces off with Boston Universitys Jamie Armstrong during first period Hockey East action at the Alfond Arena in Orono on Friday, November 1, 2019. Maine won the game 4-2. Photo by Chris Lessner
