ORONO, Maine — It is homecoming weekend in Orono, and the festivities began with a packed house at Alfond Arena on Friday, Oct. 23. The Maine hockey team took on Colgate University in a sold-out arena.
The game plan coming into this game was to shut down the opposing offense and establish pressure on the offensive side of the ice. The Black Bears wanted to make an impression on power plays and control the game from start to finish to bring the fans a win for homecoming weekend.
The first period started back and forth as both teams vied for the puck, but quickly turned to the Maine attack as they put a few shots on goal during an early stretch of pressure. The attack did not result in a goal but established the pressure that would lead to a power play later in the first period.
That power play led to the first goal of the game, scored by Maine’s fourth-year forward Tanner Klempke on the advantage. The goal was assisted by both graduate student forward Owen Fowler and fourth-year forward Sully Scholle. This goal would garner the lead that the Black Bears coasted on all the way through the end of the first period.
Stout defense was the name of the game for that first block of play, as third-year goalie Petter Wickström Stumer recorded multiple saves to keep the Maine goal clean throughout the early contest.
That sentiment continued throughout the game. The second period began with more shutdown defense as Wickström Stumer recorded more saves to keep the Maine net empty. Immediately following those saves, Maine shot the puck down the ice and put the pressure right back into full gear, pressure that would lead straight into the second goal of the evening for Maine. Second-year defenseman Loic Usereau would net the second goal for the Black Bears, with an assist from Tanner Klempke to put them ahead 2-0. The assist brought Klempke’s point total to two.
The rest of the second period consisted of more stifling defense and pressure from the Maine squad. Wickström Stumer recorded even more saves and pushed the Black Bears into the third period with a 2-0 lead.
The third period began, and the plan was simple: Hold on to the lead and cruise to a homecoming victory.
That is exactly what UMaine did. The team only gave up two shots in the first four minutes, and before that, the unit held pressure on Colgate’s goalie for the entire first wave of the last period.
About 10 minutes into the last period of play, third-year forward Lee Parks and the Black Bears would net a third goal to propel the team up by three and light the fans on fire. Alfond Arena was rocking, and the team was playing its best hockey of the season.
From there, the team cleaned up nicely and skated to the end of the game with its 3-0 lead to kick off a great weekend for students and alumni attending the game.
The game’s most impactful player was goalie Petter Wickström Stumer, who tallied a ridiculous 24-save shutout to lead Maine to its victory.
UMaine is back in action on Saturday night against Colgate once again, and next week the team will travel to Boston for a conference matchup against Boston University with momentum.
