University of Maine hockey coach Ben Barr didn’t mince words after Friday night’s 6-2 Hockey East loss to New Hampshire at the Whittemore Center in Durham, N.H.
“We got our butts kicked,” said Barr. “They outworked us. They owned us in every aspect of the game.
“It was embarrassing. It was our worst game of the year, by far,” he added.
Senior Liam Devlin had a hat trick and junior North Dakota transfer Jakob Hellsten made 18 saves as the Wildcats improved to 15-11-1 overall and 8-8-1 in Hockey East. UNH is 10-3-1 at the Whittemore Center.
The teams have now split their two regular season games and will play again Saturday night at 7 at the Whittemore Center in front of another sellout crowd.
UNH had lost three of its last four and five of its last seven coming into the game.
UMaine fell to 18-7-2 and 10-6-1, respectively, and has now lost three of its last five games after having gone 10-1-1 in its previous 12 contests.
Freshman goalie Albin Boija allowed five goals and finished with 20 saves.
Senior Harrison Blaisdell staked UNH to a 1-0 lead with the only goal of the first period. It was his seventh of the season and earning assists were Colton Huard and J.P. Turner.
Junior Cole Hanson equalized for UMaine 2:04 into the second off a pass from Ben Poisson. It was his fourth.
UNH took the lead for good with goals just 2:52 apart in the second period by Devlin and freshman Ryan Conmy.
Devlin’s goal, his eighth of the season, was set up by Conmy and Luis Lindner as he was able to get behind UMaine defenseman Jack Dalton, break in alone on Boija and flip a backhander past the goalie’s glove with 6:33 left in the period.
Conmy extended the lead by converting a Nick Ring pass on the power play as he beat Boija to the glove side from the left circle.
The Black Bears squandered a golden opportunity to climb back into the game when they received a five-minute power play but couldn’t convert.
They did get back into the game midway through the third period when freshman right wing Anthony Calafiore scored his second goal of the season and second in three games from a scramble in front. Harrison Scott and Poisson earned assists.
But Devlin struck again with just 3:08 remaining with a shot from the slot from assists by Alex Gagne and Nikolai Jenson and he capped his hat trick with an empty net goal 1:42 later.
Stiven Sardarian added a goal with eight seconds left.
“We have to find a way to pull ourselves up,” said Barr. “This all started in the third period last Saturday night.”
He was referring to the 4-3 overtime loss to Providence in which his team had three one-goal leads and couldn’t hold them.
They were outscored 2-1 in the third period and lost on a power play goal in overtime.
