Angus Crookshank scored a pair of goals Saturday night, as the New Hampshire Wildcats took game two of their weekend Hockey East series with the Maine Black Bears with a 6-2 win at the Whittemore Center in Durham, NH.
Maine (0-1-1, 0-1-1 Hockey East) took the lead first though at 4:50 of the first when Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup scored his first goal of the season on the powerplay. Schmidt-Svestrup fired one from the point, and UNH goalie Mike Robinson was screened in front and it was 1-0 Black Bears. UNH (1-0-1, 1-0-1) took over from there, as Crookshank evened it on the powerplay at 10:42 and then Benton Mass put the hosts up for good on a delayed penalty at 15:56. The ‘Cats made it 3-1 on the ensuing powerplay on a goal by Patrick Grasso just 45 seconds later. The Black Bears got within a goal and really picked up the play in the second period. Emil Westerlund scored with the extra man at 7:08 to cut it to 3-2. Maine had almost 30 seconds of a 5 on 3 powerplay later in the period but couldn’t convert. Crookshank scored his second of the night at 3:23 of the third to make it 4-2. Bears freshman Lynden Breen had a chance about 2:30 later to cut it to one again when he found a loose puck near the half empty UNH net, but shot it wide. The Wildcats then put the game away with a Cam Gendron goal at 11:53, and an empty netter from Joe Hankinson at 18:36.
Sophomore goalie Matt Thiessen, who had 37 saves in a Friday night tie (3-2 Maine shootout win), would make 27 saves in the loss. Schmidt-Svestrup added an assist to go along with his goal, while Jakub Sirota, Breen, and Brad Morrissey added an assist each. Crookshank, Gendron, Hankinson, Charlie Kelleher, and Jackson Pierson all had two points in the UNH win. Robinson made 32 saves in net. The Black Bears were 2-6 on the powerplay, while the Wildcats were 2-4. UNH takes four of the possible six points in the weekend series. Maine is scheduled to play a single game and last one before Christmas break when they travel to UMass-Lowell next Saturday at 6 p.m. to skate against the Riverhawks.
