ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s hockey team received goals 53 seconds apart in the third period from senior right wing Donavan Houle and junior defenseman David Breazeale to snap a 1-1 tie, and the opportunistic Black Bears went on to post a hard-fought 5-3 Hockey East victory over the University of Massachusetts Lowell on Friday at a sold-out Alfond Arena.
UMaine improved to 15-4-2 overall and 7-3-1 in Hockey East while the River Hawks fell to 7-13-2 and 3-7-1, respectively.
UMaine remained undefeated at the Alfond Arena this season as the Black Bears are now 7-0-2.
The teams will conclude their series Saturday night at 7.
UMass Lowell junior center Owen Cole and Houle swapped first-period goals and the teams played a scoreless second period.
UMass Lowell was assessed a too-many-men-on-the-ice-penalty midway through the third period and Houle capitalized when he took a Lynden Breen pass, darted to the net down the right side and roofed a 10-foot backhander into the far corner past Luke Pavicich.
“It was a great pass from Lynden,” said Houle. “There was some open room in front of the net so I took it far side and put it in. That’s something we work on quite a bit.”
It was his seventh of the season.
Breazeale expanded the lead seconds later as he jumped onto the ice on a line change, took a cross-ice pass from Cole Hanson and beat Pavicich with a low wrister past the goalie’s glove into the far corner.
“If (Hanson) doesn’t make a perfect pass there, I wouldn’t have had the chance,” said Breazeale.
It was his second of the season.
Josh Nadeau made it 4-1 by roofing a short wrister past Pavicich with 3:18 left.
T.J. Schweighardt got one back for UML with 1:32 left but Harrisonn Scott’s empty-netter sewed up the win before Mark Cooper scored for the River Hawks with three seconds left.
UMaine goalie Victor Ostman made 29 saves, while Pavicich ended up with 30.
For the fourth straight game, the Black Bears fell behind 1-0 when Cole opened the scoring just 2:56 into the game.
The River Hawks established a forecheck behind the Black Bear net and the puck squirted to the side of the net.
Cole kept whacking at the puck until he was able to tuck it past Ostman for his seventh goal of the season.
Linemates Jake Stella and Filip Fornaa-Svensson earned assists.
Houle tied it at the 11:29 mark off a two-on-one with Lynden Breen.
Breen carried the puck down the left wing before flipping a perfect pass over to Houle, who flipped it into the upper short side corner for his sixth goal of the campaign.
Brandon Holt also picked up an assist.
The Black Bears’ Cole Hanson had a golden opportunity to break the tie when the River Hawks turned the puck over to him in the low slot.
Hanson elected to try to make a move on Pavicich but the goalie stood his ground and made an important pad save on Hanson’s backhander.
The River Hawks carried the play in the second period but Ostman bailed the Black Bears with a number of important saves to prevent the River Hawks from taking the lead.
On an early power play, Ostman made a series of saves off Filip Fornaa Svensson.
Svensson, parked at the top of the crease, first had a redirection that Ostman kicked out and he had several more follow-up swats that were also stopped by Ostman.
Late in the period, Scout Truman was set up nicely on the inner half of the left circle but Ostman was able to make the stop.
UMass Lowell outshot the Black Bears 14-8 in the middle period.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said his team didn’t play particularly well and has trouble against teams like UMass Lowell who play a very structured style and limit his players’ time and space with the puck.
UMass Lowell forced numerous turnovers with its physical play and was able to disrupt UMaine’s flow and rush chances
“I’ll give the guys credit. They found a way to win,” said Barr who called it an “ugly” win.
Breazeale, one of the UMaine co-captains, said the River Hawks were effective on the forecheck with their size and speed and that he and his fellow defensemen have to make better reads and get the puck up to the forwards more efficiently on Saturday.
He added that Ostman was a “rock back there. He had a fantastic game.”
Breazeale said teams have a game plan when they play UMaine and they have to adapt.
“They are going to sit back and not let us score in transition and try to make us turn pucks over in the neutral zone. We have to be more mature and put pucks in behind them. We can’t play into their hands like we did in the first and second periods,” he said. “And we need to be more physical.”
UMass Lowell coach Norm Bazin said his team “had the effort. Still, we knew that team was very opportunistic and they proved it again.”
Both coaches said their teams need to play better on Saturday.
