The University of Maine’s hockey team spotted the University of Vermont a first-period power play goal but the Black Bears rallied with two second-period goals and posted a 3-1 Hockey East victory in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday night.
The tying and go-ahead goals came from freshman right wing Reid Pabich and junior right wing Donavan Houle, while sophomore center Cole Hanson added an empty-net goal from deep in his own end with two seconds remaining.
It was their first Hockey East win of the season as they are now 1-5-1 in Hockey East and 4-8-1 overall. Vermont fell to 2-9 and 5-10-1, respectively. It was UMaine’s second straight win after a seven-game winless streak and the teams will conclude their series at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The Black Bears dominated play, outshooting the Catamounts 41-17 in a win that UMaine coach Ben Barr said he was both proud of and frustrated by because many good scoring chances were squandered. For example, his team outshot Vermont 14-4 in the first period but trailed.
“I’m happy we got the win, but we have to find a way to score more goals,” he said. “We missed some wide open nets.”
Eric Gotz scored for Vermont off a feed from Andrei Buyalsky with eight seconds left in the first period. It was his second goal of the season.
But Pabich tied it just 1:41 into the second period on a breakaway off a Grayson Arnott pass with his first career goal. Jakub Sirota also picked up an assist.
Pabich broke down the right wing, made a few fakes and snapped a low shot from the right faceoff dot past Vermont goalie Gabe Carriere’s blocker side into the far corner.
Houle scored his fourth of the season and second in as many games at the 12:01 mark.
Brandon Holt kept the puck in at the right point and fed it to Houle, who skated down to the right of the faceoff dot and fired a low shot that sailed past Carriere’s blocker. Mike Mancinelli also assisted on the goal.
Hanson’s goal was his third of the campaign and it was unassisted.
Victor Ostman finished with 16 saves for the Black Bears. Carriere, who stopped 73 od 74 shots against UMaine a year ago in a 1-0 win and 1-1 tie, wound up with 38 stops.
Barr said Houle had a great game and Ostman gave them another solid effort between the pipes.
UMaine went 0-for-2 on the power play and has now gone seven games without a power play goal (0-for-19). Vermont went 1-for-3 with the man-advantage.
