Freshman left wing Bradly Nadeau scored two goals and assisted on another as the University of Maine’s hockey team completed a sweep of the Black Bears’ weekend series with a 5-4 victory over Merrimack College at the Lawler Arena in North Andover, Mass. on Saturday night.
UMaine improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in Hockey East while Merrimack fell to 3-4 and 1-2, respectively.
UMaine, ranked 20th in the country, will entertain No. 1 Boston College on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 at Alfond Arena while Merrimack will play a home-and-home series with UConn the same nights.
Nadeau, the Carolina Hurricanes’ first round draft pick in June (30th overall), scored a first-period goal and notched his second early in the second period to stake the Black Bears to a 3-0 lead.
Sophomore defenseman Brandon Chabrier had opened the scoring just 37 seconds into the game.
Graduate student left wing Mac Welsher’s unassisted goal pulled Merrimack within two at the 5:41 mark of the middle period but graduate student left wing Ben Poisson and freshman left wing Sully Scholle extended the lead to 5-1 later in the period.
The Warriors scored three third-period goals as 2022-23 All-Hockey East first teamer and second team All-American Alex Jefferies sandwiched a pair of tallies around one by Providence College transfer Michael Citara to close the gap to 5-4 with 3:44 remaining.
Jefferies, Merrimack’s leading scorer last year, had missed the first five games with an injury.
But the Black Bears hung on to get the win.
Merrimack had been 14-5-1 in its previous 20 games at Lawler Arena entering the series.
“It’s hard to win on the road in Hockey East,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “I would have liked us to have finished the game better but we’ll learn from it and, at the end of the day, a win is a win.
UMaine senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen said the team picked up where it left off on Friday.
“We’re confident in ourselves,” he said. “It got a little scarier than we would have liked tonight but we came out of the weekend with six points and that’s huge.”
Teams in Hockey East earn three points for a win in regulation and two for one in overtime or in the shootout.
The line of Breen between the Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh, combined for two goals and four assists. Josh Nadeau had one assist.
Bradly Nadeau’s two goals give him a team-leading five on the season. He also had one on Friday night.
“He’s so special,” said Breen. “When you get him the puck, good things happen. We want him shooting the puck. We’re fortunate to have him.”
Nadeau finished with a game-high eight shots on goal.
Chabrier opened the scoring with his second of the year on a wrist shot from the point that beat goalie Zachary Borgiel, who came into the game with an 0.99 goals-against average.
Bradly Nadeau was set up by Breen to extend the lead and, in the second period, Breen fed him a pass in the middle of the slot and he one-timed it past Borgiel.
After Welsher scored his second goal of the year, Poisson scored his second after being set up in front by Cole Hanson and Grayson Arnott and Scholle picked up his first college goal courtesy of assists by the Nadeau brothers.
UMaine outshot Merrimack 28-14 over the first two periods and 36-23 for the game.
Borgiel was replaced by Ollas at the outset of the third period.
Jefferies’ goals were his first two of the year and Citara collected his fourth.
Jefferies’ second goal came off a faceoff one-timer with the extra attacker on the ice after they pulled Ollas.
