The University of Maine hockey team’s season-opening three-game win streak came to an end on Saturday night as defending national champion Quinnipiac University spotted the Black Bears the game-opening goal before coming back to post a 4-1 victory at the M & T Bank Arena in Hamden, Conn.
UMaine had won Friday night’s game 2-1 in overtime on sophomore defenseman Brandon Chabrier’s goal.
Fifth-ranked Quinnipiac improved to 4-3 while UMaine fell to 3-1.
UMaine will open its Hockey East schedule with a pair of 7 p.m. games at Merrimack on Friday and Saturday while Quinnipiac will begin ECAC play at Dartmouth on Friday and at Harvard on Saturday.
UMaine junior defenseman David Breazeale opened the scoring with his first goal of the season at the 12:47 mark of the first period but it took the Bobcats just 1:10 to answer as graduate student defenseman C.J. McGee equalized with his first.
Senior center Travis Treloar scored the game-winner on a breakaway off a UMaine turnover 3:53 into the second period and linemate Mason Marcellus, a freshman left wing, extended the lead with 1:07 remaining in the middle period. It was the fourth goal of the season for each of them.
Quinninipiac, which had killed off 24 of 25 power plays entering the game, killed off six UMaine power plays including a five-minute major after Andon Cerbone was guilty of a contact-to-the-head infraction with 6:44 left in the game.
The Black Bears mustered only one shot on goal during the five-minute major.
A minor penalty for hooking was assessed to Matthew McGroarty 13 seconds after Cerbone’s penalty elapsed and sophomore left wing Sam Lipkin scored an empty-net, shorthanded goal to ice it with 1:12 remaining. It was his fourth of the campaign.
Senior transfer goalie Vinny Duplessis, who shut out UMaine 4-0 on Feb. 4, 2022 when he was at Boston University, made 25 saves for the Bobcats and senior Victor Ostman had 26 for the Black Bears.
“We got beat in every area of the game by a good team,” said UMaine third-year head coach Ben Barr. “To a man, we didn’t play very well. But give them a lot of credit. They beat us.”
He also said his team got outworked.
“That’s a hard pill to swallow but we have to learn from it,” said Barr.
The power play’s 0-for-6 showing extended its string to 15 chances without a goal.
“We couldn’t get anything going. It was ugly. We’ve got to work on it,” Barr said.
Breazeale’s goal came on a slap shot from the point. Sully Scholle and Felix Trudeau picked up assists.
McGee tied it with a blast off a faceoff win by McGroarty.
Treloar took advantage of an ill-advised pass which enabled him to break in alone and beat Ostman upstairs.
Marcellus pounced on a Cooper Moore rebound, carried the puck around the net and scored on a wraparound.
Quinnipiac went 0-for-4 on the power play.
