Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team was supposed to have an easy time against the UMass-Amherst Minutemen in a two-game set at Alfond Arena this weekend. Not only did the Black Bears have an easy time, they outplayed UMass in just about every facet of the game on both Friday and Saturday on their way to convincing 7-1 and 7-0 wins.
“It was men playing with boys out there,” said UMass coach Don “Toot” Cahoon following Saturday’s game. “[UMaine] really looked like they were having fun tonight.”
The Black Bears got goals from seven different players in the victory. Captain Peter Metcalf led the way on Senior Night, scoring once and assisting twice. Martin Kariya, Robert Liscak and Todd Jackson all had two assists as well. The other goal scorers for UMaine were Francis Nault, Lucas Lawson, Gray Shaneberger, Ben Murphy, Paul Falco and Colin Shields.
“It was good to do this tonight,” Metcalf said. “It’s good to hammer teams that we should beat. We kept playing for the whole game and really put them away.”
The wins improved UMaine to 19-9-6 overall, 13-5-4 in Hockey East. UMass fell to 8-22-2, 3-17-2 in Hockey East.
“The guys played very hard this weekend,” UMaine coach Tim Whitehead said. “We played disciplined. We were focused. We were able to stay out of the penalty box this weekend, and that really helped us.”
UMaine only took two penalties the entire weekend, only one of which resulted in a UMass power play. UMass took 10, most out of frustration on Saturday night.
Mike Morrison made eight saves in periods one and two and Matt Yeats made four saves in the third for the combined shutout.
“I didn’t have much work tonight,” Morrison said after the game. “The defense played great in front of me. They didn’t let a whole lot of shots get to me. They played great all night.”
Friday’s game ended up just as easy. The freshman line of Falco, Murphy and John Ronan made a scoring impact for all its hard work, and Shields broke out of a month-long scoring drought.
Ronan scored his first of two goals on the evening 6:14 into the game. The Minutemen tied the game 16 seconds later on a Mike Morrison turnover. He was behind the net and tried to pass the puck to the blue line for a teammate through the slot. Peter Trovato intercepted the pass and put the puck into the empty net.
Peter Metcalf scored 14:05 into the first after intercepting a clearing attempt by UMass at the left point and rifling a slap shot through the UMass goalie Tim Warner’s five-hole to make it 2-1. Shields added his first of two at 18:51.
Murphy and Lawson scored at 9:45 and 14:39 of the second, respectively, to make it 5-1 after two periods. Shields and Ronan each scored their second goals of the game in the third period to wrap it up.
“These are dangerous games,” Whitehead said. “[UMass] is desperate for points. But we have goals we want to accomplish, too, and one of those is home ice [for the Hockey East Quarterfinals]. We want the seniors to have one more weekend at home. So the game was important to us, too.”
“We’ve been working hard, but we haven’t been finishing,” Ronan said of the freshman line’s play. “We got the bounces today, it’s great.”
Ronan’s goals were his first since the season opener. He was injured the next night, forcing him out of the lineup for over a month, and he’s struggled to get his form back.
“It’s been a long time,” Ronan said. “I’ve gotten the shots, but none of them were falling until tonight.”
Shields scored his first goals since he scored two against Merrimack on Jan. 19. He was happy to score again.
“I’ve been getting a lot of chances, especially last weekend at Providence,” he said. “I was playing solid, but none of them were going in. Some guys made some nice plays for me, and I finished them tonight.”
The Black Bears clinched home ice for the Hockey East Quarterfinal series with Friday’s win and UMass-Lowell’s loss at UNH. The Black Bears tournament seed and opponent is yet to be determined.
