Keenan Suthers scored his second goal of the night and the game winner with 10:35 remaining on Saturday evening, leading the Maine Black Bears to a 4-3 victory over the Union College Dutchmen in men’s college hockey non-conference play at Alfond Arena in Orono.
Chaz Smedsrud got the scoring started to put Union up 1-0 at 3:22 of the first period. Maine would then control most of the play through the rest of the opening period and in the second. Suthers tied it at 6:43 of the first, and Ben Poisson made it 2-1 Black Bears at 13:19. The hosts extended it to 3-1 on a Nolan Renwick one timer just 2:05 into the middle period. The Dutchmen would fight back as Caden Villegas scored 1:38 into the third to slice the deficit in half, and Matt Allen deposited a rebound in front of goalie Victor Ostman at 7:22 to tie it 3-3. Suthers though found a rebound and slammed it in at 9:25 in what turned out to be the eventual game winner. Union had a golden opportunity to tie it or more when Donovan Villeneuve-Houle was called for elbowing and a game misconduct with 5:32 left to play, giving the visiting Dutchmen a five minute major powerplay. Maine though was able to kill it off and survive for their first regulation win of the season, improving to 2-11-4.
Ostman made 27 saves in the win. Renwick added a goal and an assist, Jakob Sirota had two assists, while Tristan Poissant, Villeneuve-Houle, Dawson Bruneski, Lynden Breen, and David Breazeale had one assist each. Connor Murphy made 38 saves in the loss for Union, who falls to 5-9-3 on the year. Villegas had one goal and two assists for the Dutchmen. Smedsrud also contributed a goal and an assist. Maine will be back in action on Friday, December 31 when they travel to Penn State to begin a two game non-conference series with the Nittany Lions.
