ORONO — The University of Maine men’s hockey team earned its first trip to the Hockey East semifinals since the 2011-12 season with a 5-0 quarterfinal win over sixth seed New Hampshire at a sold-out Alfond Arena Saturday night.
The Black Bears received two goals and two assists apiece from freshman brothers and linemates Bradly and Josh Nadeau and 18 saves from freshman goalie Albin Boija. Graduate student left wing Ben Poisson had the other UMaine goal and junior Nolan Renwick, who centers the line between the Nadeaus, finished with three assists.
Third seed UMaine improved to 23-10-2 overall while sixth seed UNH wound up 20-15-1.
UMaine will now take on second seed Boston University in Friday’s semifinal at the TD Garden in Boston at 7:30 p.m. with top seed Boston College facing fifth seed UMass in the other semifinal at 4 p.m.
“It was a great effort by everyone,” said Josh Nadeau. “Everyone showed up today and contributed.”
He said it was nice that he and his brother were able to come through.
“We’ve had a great connection all year long,” said Josh Nadeau. “It all comes down to the little details. Whenever we play simple and good, detailed hockey, good things happen and we saw that tonight.”
After a scoreless first period in which UNH had a slight edge in play and saw Ryan Conmy rattle a shot off the crossbar, Josh Nadeau opened the scoring just 52 seconds into the second period.
Just seconds after Boija made a good save off Liam Devlin, the Black Bears broke out of the defensive zone.
Renwick got the puck to Bradly Nadeau and he made a long cross-ice backhanded pass to his brother, who broke in alone down the right wing and snapped a short wrist shot past Jakub Hellsten’s glove.
“Bradly made a great play beating two guys and that left me alone. I just had to finish. I put the shot below his glove,” said Josh Nadeau whose goal was his 17th of the year.
That goal snapped Hellsten’s school record of 213:30 shutout minutes. He finished with 20 saves for UNH.
Poisson expanded the lead on the power play at the 8:23 mark.
Lynden Breen fed Josh Nadeau in the middle of the slot for a one-timer.
Hellsten made the save but the puck trickled into the crease and Poisson tapped it in for his sixth of the season.
“We practice that tons in practice. So it becomes natural,” said Josh Nadeau.
Bradly Nadeau made it 3-0 at the 15:07 mark when he finished off a pretty passing sequence involving Nolan Renwick and his brother. The Wildcats turned the puck over and Josh Nadeau was able to keep it in the offensive zone.
Josh slid it across to the bottom of the right faceoff circle and Bradly shoveled it past Hellsten.
“[Renwick] and Josh had a good reload there and we had a little three-on-two from the blue line and my brother had an awesome feed to me and the goalie was out of position so I just had to slid it in,” Bradly Nadeau said.
He made it 4-0 on the power play off a David Breazeale pass and Josh Nadeau finished off the scoring later in the period.
Bradly Nadeau and Breazeale said there was a delay in the game before the faceoff leading to the fourth goal because the referees had to check something at the scorer’s table so they huddled together and drew up a play that produced Nadeau’s one-timer from the top of the left circle.
“We had time to talk and draw up a play and it worked,” said Bradly Nadeau.
It was UMaine’s second power play goal and the Black Bears have now scored one in five straight games, going 7-for-16 during that span.
“It’s fun to see a power play get going at the end of the season like this because, in the playoffs, special teams are a big thing for wins,” Bradly Nadeau said.
The Black Bears limited UNH to just 10 shots on goal over the second and third periods.
“I think the energy level probably favored us because they had to play on Wednesday (1-0 win over UMass Lowell) and then they had to come up here and play in this environment, which is incredible,” UMaine head coach Ben Barr said.
“We got pucks in, we forechecked well. And obviously some guys made some plays,” said Barr. “Nobody had a bad game tonight and that’s what you need in the playoffs.”
UNH coach Mike Souza said the Nadeaus are “difference-makers. If you give them a chance, they’re going to make you pay. Elite players do that. Their best guys beat us tonight and that’s the way it goes in sports sometimes.
“I wish we had given Maine a little more [competition] in the second and the third periods but it wasn’t our night,” added Souza.
