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University of Maine freshman goaltender Shawn Sirman found some added incentive in the Black Bears’ exhibition Saturday against the United States National Team Development Program Under-18 squad.
His counterpart was Jack Campbell, the goalie of record in Team USA’s 6-5 win against Canada in the Word Junior Championships gold medal game on Jan. 5.
Sirman is from Ontario.
“It kind of motivated me a little more to play a little better,” Sirman said. “Didn’t want to lose twice.”
Sirman turned away all 33 Team USA shots, including seven Grade-A’s (High Percentage) in the first period alone to earn a 4-0 shutout at Alfond Arena.
“Sirman just stood on his head the entire game,” UMaine senior center Brett Carriere said. “We were really grateful for that. The outcome could have been really different.”
“I was pretty nervous at the start — first time playing in front of the Alfond Crowd,” Sirman said. “But I settled down five or six minutes in.”
Saturday’s game was the second exhibition of the week for the Black Bears, who had an off week from their Hockey East Conference schedule. The Black Bears defeated the University of New Brunswick on Tuesday. UMaine will travel to the University of Vermont for a pair of games next weekend.
UMaine coach Tim Whitehead felt the play of Sirman and senior goalie Dave Wilson, who started Tuesday’s 4-1 win, was the highlight of both games. The pair earned starts in place of injured starting goalie Scott Darling, who hopes to return for the Vermont games.
“That’s very encouraging when we have Scotty out,” Whitehead said. “It’s great to see those two elevating their game.”
Sirman is 0-4-0 in three regular season starts and Wilson lost both of his starts.
Four different skaters scored for UMaine Saturday, which built its lead despite being outshot 33-27. Team USA was unable to earn a power play the entire night, while UMaine capitalized on their third of five chances with the man-advantage.
“Our power play, I thought was very sharp again,” Whitehead said. “We had a couple of near misses where we had good possessions.”
Campbell took the loss in a 23-save effort.
Carriere put UMaine up 1-0 10:31 into the opening period when he buried senior right wing Kevin Swallow’s offering with a backhander at the doorstep. Sophomore left wing Theo Andersson battled for the puck in front and put it on Carriere’s stick.
“I really didn’t do too much on the play,” Carriere said. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”
The goal came after a potential Team USA go-ahead goal was waived off due to high-sticking.
Team USA outshot the Black Bears 15-9 in the first period, but the tides turned in the second as UMaine gained possession of the shot margin 21-20 and tacked on a pair of goals to take a 3-0 lead into the second intermission.
“The first period was pretty rocky,” Carriere said. “After that we sort of got used to the tempo and regained our confidence a bit, and pucks just started going in the net.”
Less than four minutes into the second period, UMaine sophomore right wing Gustav Nyquist found freshman defenseman Nick Pryor in the slot from Campbell’s left and Pryor capitalized with the vacant net-front. Pryor played 49 games in the NDTP from 2006-08 and appreciated the goal against his former team despite it coming in an exhibition.
“I wanted one going into the game,” Pryor said. “It made it even sweeter to have it against them as my first goal here.”
Pryor is one of six Black Bears to play at various age levels of the NDTP.
UMaine went ahead 3-0 on a power play with 1:02 left in the second period. After Campbell turned away an initial shot by Nyquist from the right faceoff circle, freshman center Klas Leidermark sent the puck back out through the slot and sophomore defenseman Will O’Neill found Nyquist waiting at the right post to tip in a slap-pass.
“That was such a great pass from O’Neill,” Whitehead said. “That was a big goal, because you want your power play to capitalize.”
Team USA committed all three second-period penalties and was outshot 11-5 in the period.
O’Neill added a third period unassisted goal as Campbell lost track of the slow moving puck in traffic.
“We buried our chances and Sirman kept us in it the whole night,” O’Neill said. “He played tremendous tonight.”
The Black Bears feel they gained confidence from the mid-season exhibitions and are prepared for the final stretch.
“To have Wilson and Sirman play as well as they did this week is a real confidence boost for the whole team,” Whitehead said. “I was very proud of them.”
