ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s Black Bears registered the best win in recent memory on Saturday night at the Alfond Arena.
Junior Victor Ostman was superb, making 33 saves in posting his first career shutout, and the Black Bears erupted for four third-period goals to stun No. 3 Quinnipiac 4-0.
UMaine improved to 2-2 overall, while third-ranked Quinnipiac suffered its first loss after two wins and two ties.
The teams will play again at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Cole Hanson opened the scoring 3:13 into the third period, and Ben Poisson made it 2-0 at the 12:45 mark with UMaine’s first power play goal of the season. Quinnpiac transfer Matthew Fawcett expanded the lead 2:15 later before Nolan Renwick capped the scoring.
“We got to the goalie and we finished our hits. That was the difference,” UMaine second-year head coach Ben Barr said. “It wasn’t different at Bentley [5-1 loss last Saturday], but we have a team that has to manufacture goals by getting to the net, getting rebounds, get in the goalie’s eyes and we did that tonight.
Barr lauded the performance of Ostman.
“He made some big saves in the first two periods. They had some power plays and that five-on-three and he made some big-time stops. That changes the game for you,” he said. “That’s the best game I’ve seen from him since I’ve been here.”
Ostman said he considers it one of the best performances of his career.
“That was really fun, especially playing a team like that. They’re really good,” Ostman said. “To win at home is special.”
He said he just tried to “stay in the present” and just worry about the next shot.
Hanson’s goal was set up by Brandon Holt and Didrik Henbrant.
Henbrant passed it back to the point to Holt, whose shot was tipped by Hanson in front and saved by goalie Yaniv Perets. Henbrant took a shot that hit a defenseman and deflected to Hanson.
“Brandon delivered a puck to the net and it was kind of bouncing around. It was sitting there. I just wanted to go hard to the net and I was able to put it in,” said Hanson, a transfer from Colgate University who added that the team played much better than it did against Bentley.
“We played hard,” he said. “We were much more physical than we were last weekend. Teams don’t want to get hit. If you take away time and space, that’s a good thing.”
Poisson scored off a nice cross-ice pass from Lynden Breen, who wheeled out of the left corner with the puck.
Poisson tapped the pass to his left and fired it in one motion past Perets, who was screened by UMaine freshman left wing Thomas Freel.
“It was a good pass. I couldn’t get off the one-timer, but I needed to get off a quick shot. We had a really good net presence. The goalie didn’t see anything,” said Poisson.
Fawcett converted a breakaway off a Donavan Houle pass. His first shot was stopped by Perets, but he tapped the rebound inside the left post.
Renwick tallied with a one-timer off a Justin Michaelian pass.
Perets finished with 30 saves before being replaced after the fourth goal.
“Everyone bought into the same game plan,” Poisson said. “We talked about our details and that included finishing checks, being on the right side of the puck, advancing pucks past lines and winning battles. That was our big focus. Every single guy did that.”
