Coming off an overtime loss to Providence at home last Saturday, the #7 Maine men’s ice hockey team was looking to bounce back as they traveled to the Whittemore Center in Durham to renew their Hockey East rivalry with #19 UNH for a two game league series.
On Friday- Liam Devlin had a hat trick, and UNH scored twice in a span of 2:52 in the second period to take a two goal lead and would skate away with a 6-2 win. Harrison Blaisdell scored the lone tally of the first period at 14:55 to make it 1-0 Wildcats. Maine struck back to tie it on a goal from Cole Hanson at 2:04 of the second. The hosts took the lead for good when Devlin got his first of the night at 13:27. Ryan Commy netted a powerplay marker at 16:19 to extend it to 3-1 after 40 minutes. Anthony Calafiore got the Black Bears within 3-2 at 11:10 of the third period, but that was the end of their scoring. Devlin made it 4-2 at 16:52, and then put one into an empty net for his hat trick at 18:34. Stiven Sardarian found the back of the net in the final 10 seconds to provide the four goal difference.
Ben Poisson had two assists in the loss for Maine, and Albin Boija made 20 saves in net. The Black Bears went 0-2 on the powerplay. Along with the hat trick from Devlin, Alex Gagne was also a multiple point scorer with two assists in the win for UNH. Jakob Hellsten made 18 stops, and the Wildcats went 1-1 on the powerplay.
On Saturday- Maine got off to a better start than Friday by getting the first goal, but UNH rallied to sweep the series with a 5-2 win. Donovan Villeneuve-Houle made it 1-0 Black Bears at 4:29 of the first period, before Blaisdell answered for the Wildcats at 9:14 of the second on the tail end of a major powerplay after a game misconduct penalty to Villeneuve-Houle. Morgan Winters gave the hosts the lead for good on a goal at 19:04. Colton Huard extended it to 3-1 at 3:37 of the third period on the powerplay. Harrison Scott sliced it to 3-2 at 9:09, but as they did the night before UNH put it away with goals from Cy LeClerc at 9:32 and a fourth goal of the weekend unassisted by Devlin at 16:03 to take all six league points.
Victor Ostman returned to start in net for the first time in four games and made 31 saves in the loss for Maine. Brandon Chabrier, Brandon Holt, Nolan Renwick, and Thomas Freel had one assist each. The Black Bears went 0-2 on the powerplay. Hellsten made 21 stops for UNH. Huard, LeClerc, and Devlin all had one goal and one assist. The Wildcats went 2-6 on the extra man, and improve to 16-11-1 and 9-8-1 in Hockey East.
Maine sees their record drop to 18-8-2 and 10-7-1 in the conference, swept for a second time in Hockey East this season. The other instance was at Boston University back on November 17 and 18. The Black Bears return to Alfond Arena to take on the red hot Northeastern Huskies next Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. Northeastern is coming off a split with UMass-Lowell this weekend, but defeated Maine in Boston 6-3 on February 2 and also upset #3 Boston University in overtime in the Beanpot Championship this past Monday.
Recaps by Chris Lessner
Photo by Anthony DelMonaco from a Maine men’s hockey game earlier this season at Alfond Arena vs Boston College. The Black Bears were swept by their rival UNH in Durham over the weekend 6-2 and 5-2.
