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Men’s Hockey: Warriors pose tough test at home for Bears

UMaine travels to Lawler Arena for two-game set, Merrimack is 11-2-0 at home

Posted on Feb. 25, 2010, at 1:44 a.m.

Even while averaging a Hockey East Conference-leading 3.77 goals per game, the University of Maine men’s hockey team did not expect to post eight goals last Friday night against the league’s stingiest defense.

The Black Bears (15-12-3, 12-9-2 Hockey East) hope to carry some residual magic from sophomore left wing Brian Flynn’s historic performance against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on the road to Merrimack College this weekend, where Hockey East’s hottest goaltender of late awaits.

Flynn’s seven-point game (five goals, two assists) set a new UMaine record, as he stymied Lowell’s duo of senior netminders, Carter Hutton and Nevin Hamilton. Flynn’s line, complemented by junior center Tanner House and sophomore right wing Gustav Nyquist, combined for 16 points on the evening.

“I’m trying not to think about it too much, because we’re coming down this home stretch here with four big games left,” Flynn said. “It’s definitely a night I’ll always remember.”

“One of the best parts of Brian’s performance was not just that he scored five goals and two assists, but that he had some of the best defensive plays of the game with his backchecking and his defensive awareness,” UMaine coach Tim Whitehead said. “It was a very complete performance.”

UMaine’s top scorers will have to take a similar approach of getting to the net-front against Merrimack sophomore goaltender Joe Cannata, who is 4-0-1 in his last five starts and has not allowed more than two goals in any of those games. Cannata’s Warriors are coming off a weekend sweep of the University of Massachusetts, which commenced with Cannata’s first shutout of the season Saturday in a 42-save effort.

“To score goals, especially at this point in the season, you have to get to the net,” Flynn said. “You have to get some traffic, take the goalie’s eyes away, and try to bang home some rebounds.”

Merrimack (13-15-1, 10-11-1 HE) will be on short rest after a Tuesday night game against Boston College, but are 11-2-0 at Lawler Arena. Just five points separate UMaine and Merrimack in the third and eighth spots in Hockey East, respectively. UMaine won a Jan. 9 game against the Warriors at Alfond Arena, 4-2. Senior Andrew Braithwaite took the loss between the pipes in that contest.

“This is going to be a tough test,” Flynn said. “It’s kind of what we need here, going on the road and seeing if we can steal some points.”

Though UMaine’s offensive production has been efficient, shutting down opposing threats has been their downfall. The Black Bears have allowed 20 goals in their last four games combined, and are surrendering a league-high 3.37 goals per-game.

“If we’re going to go on a run down the stretch, we need to lower our goals-against average,” Whitehead said. “We’re going to focus on team defense and protecting our goalies over the next two weeks, in preparation for the playoffs.”

Freshman Stephane Da Costa is the nation’s points leader among first-year players, and has 17 points in his last 12 games. His 38 points lead the team, ahead of junior linemates Chris Barton and Joe Cucci. Barton has a team-high 17 goals, and Cucci registered one of the four hat tricks seen in Hockey East matchups last weekend.

“I think it’s one of the top lines in the league, no doubt,” Whitehead said.

The top two power play units in the nation will oppose each other in the weekend set. UMaine is converting at a 29.5 percent clip, while Merrimack capitalizes on 25.4 percent of their chances with the man-advantage. The Black Bears remedied that issue last Friday against Lowell by staying penalty-free for the game.

“We’ve first got to stay out of the box, and try to block some shots on the penalty kill and win some faceoffs in our own end,” Flynn said.

Nyquist’s seven-point weekend (one goal, six assists) was overshadowed by Flynn’s feat, but it gave him the nation’s highest points-per-game average (1.63). He has more assists (34) than he had points last year as a freshman (32). His 49 points are the highest total in a single-season by a UMaine player since Martin Kariya scored 50 in 2002-03.

“[Nyquist] kind of simplified his game a little bit this weekend, I thought,” Flynn said. “He maybe shot a few more pucks this weekend that he normally would have tried to pass off.”

Junior defenseman Jeff Dimmen scored a goal in both games, and seven of his 10 goals in the season have come in UMaine’s last eight games. He finished at plus-six for the weekend.

“Getting that contribution from our defense is huge,” Flynn said. “He’s playing against the other team’s top guys every night and shutting them down, so finishing plus-six is pretty big.”

Following the Merrimack games, UMaine will return to Alfond Arena for their final two regular season contests against UMass on March 5-6.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010, 1:44 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.