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Led by sophomore goalie Dan Sullivan, the University of Maine men’s hockey team swept one of the nation’s top teams for the second consecutive weekend.
This time the victim was No. 2 Boston University, who, coming into the weekend, had yet to lose in 2012. UMaine became the first team to win its season series against the Terriers.
The Black Bears improve to 14-8-3 and 11-7-2 in Hockey East while the Terriers fall to 15-8-1 and 11-7-2 in conference play. More importantly, the Black Bears sit comfortably in third place in Hockey East with 24 points, just one behind co-leaders BU and Boston College.
The Black Bears came from behind Friday night in front of a crowd of 5,000 at Agganis Arena, as junior forward Alex Chiasson put the Terriers ahead late in the first period.
However, the Black Bears evened the score with a power-play goal 5 minutes into the second period. Junior forward Adam Shemansky scored his eighth goal of the season, beating BU senior goalie Kieran Millan.
UMaine took the lead on the power play in the second period with freshman forward John Parker on the receiving end of some nice passes from hulking defenders. Senior defender Ryan Hegarty found junior defender Mark Nemec, who fired a pass to a rushing Parker for his second collegiate goal.
A 20-minute delay occurred after Parker’s goal when the lights went out in the arena.
Four minutes after the lights were turned back on, BU lit up the red one behind UMaine’s goal when junior forward Ross Gaudet matched Parker with his second goal of the season.
That would be the last goal Sullivan would let up, as the Black Bears gained the lead midway through the third period. Senior forward Spencer Abbott fired a shot toward Millan that was redirected by sophomore forward Mark Anthoine for another power-play goal from the Lewiston native.
The Terriers pulled their goalie with 2 minutes remaining, but the Black Bears put the game out of reach after Abbott collected his own block and skated toward the open net.
Sullivan finished with 28 saves, while Millan corralled 21 shots. Sullivan outdid himself in the series finale the following night, stopping 38 of 39 BU shots.
This time, the Black Bears jumped out to the 1-0 lead, but it took the majority of the first period. With 6 seconds remaining, Parker picked up his second goal in as many nights. Nemec and sophomore forward Jon Swavely also assisted on the goal.
It took BU less than 3 minutes to even the score when sophomore defender Garrett Noonan scored his ninth goal of the season — on his birthday.
Just as quickly as BU tied the game, UMaine grabbed the lead back by way of junior defender Nick Pryor’s first collegiate goal. Pryor gathered the puck off a faceoff and fired it with so much force that a lengthy review was called for to see if the puck had crossed the plane after hitting a post.
“It was kind of a rolling puck, so I stepped into it and gave it everything I had,” Pryor told USCHO.com. “I didn’t even see it go in.”
“This guy had a missile of a shot,” UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead told USCHO.com. “[The refs] had to go to the video because it was so fast.”
It was the 17th time the Terriers have allowed a player his first collegiate goal in HEC play this season, out of just 49 goals.
Sullivan continued to keep the Terriers muzzled throughout the second half of the game, as the Black Bears sealed the sweep with another empty-net goal with 5 seconds remaining.
Sullivan stopped 66 of 69 shots on the weekend against the No. 4 offense in the country.
“Dan Sullivan just had a tremendous weekend,” Whitehead told USCHO.com. “Without a doubt, he was the difference tonight, that’s for sure, but it was a team effort. A lot of guys blocked shots.”
The Black Bears look to keep rolling this weekend when they welcome the University of Alabama-Huntsville in rare out-of-conference, late-season play. The weekend series starts Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Alfond Arena.
Bangor Daily News