The Sacred Heart Pioneers made a flukey first period goal stand up, getting 24 saves from goalie Justin Robbins to defeat the Maine Black Bears 1-0 in men’s college hockey action in front of 4,142 fans at the Alfond Arena in Orono Friday night.
In the home opener for Maine, and the first time they’ve played in front of fans in 594 days, it was Adam Tisdale of SHU getting the break to score the only goal of the game. With Black Bear goaltender Matthew Thiessen going behind his net to play a dump in, the puck took an unfortunate bounce off the boards right to the front of the net where Tisdale pounced on it to slam it into the empty cage at 8:29 of the first period. Thiessen was strong in net the rest of the way keeping Maine (0-3) in the game, but unfortunately several good chances went by the boards as well as two powerplay opportunities. The Black Bears would pull their goalie for the extra man with 1:30 to go in the game, but never did get a good clean look at the net on Robbins as the Pioneers improved to 2-3.
Thiessen made 33 saves in his season debut in the loss. John Jaworski assisted on the game winner by Tisdale in the win for Sacred Heart, who is out of the Atlantic Hockey Association. The Pioneers have played all non-conference games against Hockey East opponents so far, with wins over Boston University and now Maine. The Black Bears still seek their first win of the season in Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 5 p.m.
