UMaine wins Hockey East opener for first time since 2017
The College of Maine’s hockey workforce obtained a second-period objective from senior heart and co-captain Lynden Breen and a 3rd interval rating from freshman linemate Bradly Nadeau to edge Merrimack Faculty 2-1 at Lawler Area in North Andover, Mass. on Friday night time.
It was UMaine’s Hockey East opener and it snapped a five-game winless streak in league openers courting again to a 4-3 win over UConn on Oct. 6, 2017.
UMaine had gone 0-3-2 in its final 5 Hockey East debuts.
UMaine, which entered the sport ranked twentieth within the nation in each main polls, improved to 4-1 whereas Merrimack had its three-game successful streak snapped and is now 3-3 total and 1-1 in Hockey East.
It additionally ended Merrimack’s residence successful streak at six video games courting again to final season.
The groups will conclude their sequence on Saturday night time at 7.
Junior heart Matt Copponi’s energy play objective with 51 seconds remaining made issues attention-grabbing. It was a six-on-four because the Warriors had pulled goalie Hugo Ollas in favor of an additional attacker.
However the Black Bears held on for the victory.
UMaine senior goalie Victor Ostman made 25 saves whereas Ollas completed with 20.
Breen opened the scoring along with his second objective of the season and thirty fifth of his profession on the 1:03 mark of the second interval.
Freshman proper wing Josh Nadeau, Bradly’s older brother and the third member of the road, snapped a go to Breen that despatched him in alone on Ollas.
Breen transformed by roofing his breakaway.
Josh Nadeau rattled a shot off the put up later within the interval and Ostman made a great save off Max Wattvil, who had a high-percentage likelihood after popping out of the penalty field.
Ostman preserved the 1-0 lead 3:44 into the third interval when he made an important glove save on Ben Brar’s breakaway.
Bradly Nadeau gave the Black Bears some helpful respiration room with 9:16 left when he took a go from his brother and fired it previous Ollas from the left wing circle. It was his team-leading third of the season.
Josh Nadeau’s second help of the night time offers him 4 on the season and ties him with Thomas Freel for the workforce lead.
Copponi made it 2-1 when he was in a position to swat residence the rebound of a Zach Bookman shot for his third of the 12 months however the Black Bears had been in a position to maintain the Warriors at bay.
“The blokes labored laborious and located a method (to win),” stated UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “This can be a actual laborious place to win and Merrimack is an actual good workforce.
“Merrimack took it to us within the second interval however we had some pushback within the third. Our third interval was strong. It was good to see us elevate up just a little bit somewhat than go right into a shell. We had been in a position to get some prolonged shifts (within the offensive zone) and we protected the puck nicely,” stated the UMaine third-year head coach.
He additionally stated “Victor made some actually huge saves. So did their man (Ollas).”
Barr stated his workforce was in a position to “maintain the sport easy” and the gamers didn’t get annoyed like they did in final Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Quinnipiac.
Barr praised the play of the leaders, co-captains Breen and David Breazeale and assistant captains Nolan Renwick and Ben Poisson.
“They led us right this moment and also you want that from these guys on the highway,” stated Barr.
Merrimack went 23-14-1 a 12 months in the past, misplaced in time beyond regulation within the Hockey East championship sport to Boston College and earned an NCAA Match berth.
The Warriors, who went 16-8 in league common season play, had been picked to complete third within the Hockey East preseason coaches ballot.
