Jacheym Kondelik scored on the powerplay with 7:17 left in the third period Friday night, leading the University of Connecticut Huskies past the Maine Black Bears 4-3 in men’s Hockey East action at Alfond Arena in Orono. The game was the conference home opener for Maine, who stays winless so far on the season.
Adrien Bisson gave Maine their only lead of the night scoring at 16:25 of the first period. UConn (5-3-0, 3-1-0 Hockey East) bounced back with a really strong second period. The Huskies tied it on a powerplay tally by Vladislav Firstov at 4:41, then took a 2-1 advantage on a goal from Ryan Tverberg at 11:27. Grant Hebert had the answer for the Black Bears, scoring just six seconds after a Maine powerplay expired to make it 2-2 at 16:41. It didn’t stay tied too long, as the guests got another one from Tverberg just 28 seconds later to take a 3-2 lead to the third period. Jakub Sirota surprised UConn goaltender Darion Hanson to start the third to tie things once again. After a Maine faceoff win, Sirota took one stride across center ice and fired one on net that found the back of the net on a puck that Hanson never made a move on just six seconds in. A goaltender interference penalty led to the game winner for the Huskies. The Black Bears pulled goaltender Matthew Thiessen with 1:07 left and took a timeout with the faceoff in the UConn zone, but never got any good opportunities to get the equalizer and sees their record slip to 0-6-1, 0-3-0 in Hockey East.
Thiessen made 32 saves in the loss. Adam Dawe and Keenan Suthers both had two assists, while David Breazeale and Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup had one each. Hanson made 27 saves in the win for Connecticut, with Tverberg leading the way with two goals and one assist. Seven other skaters also added an assist each. The teams finish off the two game conference series on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
