ORONO- 12 players got on the scoresheet on Friday night, as the #8 Maine Black Bears blanked the Vermont Catamounts 7-0 in the opener of a two game Hockey East men’s series at Alfond Arena.
Vermont outplayed Maine in several areas and outshot them in the opening period, but the Black Bears were still able to manage the only goal that was needed. Sully Scholle found a bouncing puck off the stick of Jeremy Langlois from the left point, and backhanded it into the net short side on Catamounts goalie Aiden Wright for his second tally of the season at 6:29.
Maine turned it on in the second period for some big time breathing room. Langlois made it 2-0 just 43 seconds in with a shot from the high point past a screened Wright. The flood gates then opened later in the stanza, as Josh Nadeau, Miguel Marques, and Owen Fowler made it 5-0 in a span of 3:16 with goals at 12:36, 13:01, and 15:52 ending the night in between the pipes for Wright. The markers by Nadeau and Fowler came on the powerplay. Freshman phenom Justin Poirier put another one in at 11:00 of the third period, before Nadeau finished off his two goal night to end the scoring at 16:43.
Wright made 17 saves on 22 shots in the loss for Vermont, while Axel Mangbo stopped eight shots in relief. The Catamounts went 0-2 on the powerplay in falling to 3-6 and 1-4 in Hockey East. Marques led the way with four points (one goal, three assists) in the win for Maine. Nadeau had two goals and one assist, while Langois had one goal and two assists. Scholle (one goal, one assist), and Brandon Holt (two assists) had two points each. Albin Boija had 29 saves for his second shutout this season, and the eighth of his career. The Black Bears (7-3-1, 4-1-0 Hockey East) went 2-5 on the powerplay. The teams will finish off the series on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
