ORONO, Maine – The University of Maine men’s hockey team used five different goal scorers and overcame 10 trips to the penalty box to beat the Dalhousie University Tigers 5-1 in an exhibition matchup Sunday afternoon.
The Black Bears begin the regular season on the road against St. Lawrence University Oct. 11-12.
UMaine head coach Dennis “Red” Gendron was pleased with what he saw out of his team in their first contest with him behind the bench.
“Other than taking five straight penalties in the second period, it was good,” he said. “The things we worked on all fall: hard work, incredible compete level. Those kinds of things were there. Attacking the net, getting on people on the forecheck and stealing pucks and counterattacking – that sort of stuff was there today.”
UMaine sophomore forward Ryan Lomberg broke the 0-0 tie a little less than five minutes in on a net drive down the right-side boards. He was able to beat a Dalhousie defender before tucking one past Tigers senior goaltender Bobby Nadeau to give the Black Bears the 1-0 lead. Junior defenseman Jake Rutt assisted on the play.
“I don’t really remember it, honestly,” Lomberg said with a laugh after the game. “I was going to chip it, but I realized that he was moving his feet pretty slowly so I just kind of tried taking it wide. And as soon as I realized that I was behind him I just flicked it upstairs. At first I thought it didn’t go in because I saw the puck beside the net because it bounced out so quickly, but as soon as the fans started going nuts I realized that it had gone in and I was pretty happy.”
Nadeau was tested constantly on Sunday, producing 37 saves on 42 shots in net for Dalhousie. His counterpart, fellow senior goaltender Martin Ouellette, gave up one goal on 18 shots to get the win for the Black Bears.
“Oh, Bobby is great for us,” said Dalhousie head coach Chris Donnelly. “Just hoping he can stay healthy for us. He’s only played about four games in the last two years with his groin issues, so he’s been tested quite a bit in the last three contests and this exhibition. We like the way he’s playing and the fact he’s been able to stay healthy is tremendous for our program.”
“I mean I played pretty well, but not a lot of action going on at my end,” Ouellette said. “We took maybe too many penalties, but I think the [penalty kill] did a great job blocking shots and forcing turnovers and clearing pucks.”
Junior forward Andrew Cerretani put UMaine up by two three minutes after Lomberg’s goal on a rebound chance. Freshman defender Eric Schurhamer earned the assist after his wrister from the point was blocked by Nadeau. Freshman forward Brian Morgan was also credited with an assist.
The Black Bears capped the first period scoring on a 5-on-3 power play, again off a rebound. Sophomore defender Ben Hutton fired one on net that was initially saved before junior forward Connor Leen put it home.
“We can’t just rely on making plays. We have to take the puck to the net hard and throw some hand grenades there and look for rebounds. We have to screen goalies, we have to tip pucks. That’s just freaking how it is, and we were good at that today,” Gendron said.
Dalhousie went 0-3 on the man-advantage in the first stanza, thanks in large part to an aggressive UMaine penalty kill that created almost as many shorthanded chances as the Tigers created on the power play. They would finish 1-10 with the extra skater.
“The whole idea is, as soon as you sniff out an opportunity to attack, attack. We don’t care if we’re short-handed or five-on-five. If we steal the puck we want to go and put pressure on the other team,” Gendron said.
The Tigers saw a little more of the puck in the second period thanks in large part to the Black Bears inability to stay out of the box.
Their best opportunity to break through came with just over seven minutes remaining in the period on a partial breakaway. Ouellette missed on a poke check as he came out of his crease and the puck looked headed toward goal until senior defenseman Brice O’Connor swooped in to bat it away.
“That was a great play. I mean he pinched and maybe should not have. The puck just bounced over my shoulder and rolled behind […] and Brice was able to make a great play on it,” Ouellette said. “I don’t how many times I said ‘thank you’ to Brice.”
UMaine’s penalty woes finally caught up to them three minutes into the final stanza. Rutt lost the handle as he skated along blue line and Dalhousie junior forward Chris Ivanko picked up it, skated in alone on Ouellette and snapped a wrist shot over the netminder’s shoulder to get the Tigers on the board at 3-1.
Donnelly said he was proud of the way his team competed despite missing four of his top six forwards.
“They’re a strong, star program,” Donnelly said of the Black Bears. “I liked the way our guys hung in there despite the numbers, and competed hard. We felt pretty good about our game at the end of it all but Maine’s got a nice hockey team.”
UMaine put two more in the back of the net to bring the score to 5-1. Freshman forward Cam Brown scored his first goal as a Black Bear after a net drive by sophomore forward Will Merchant forced a rebound. Sophomore defenseman Connor Riley also helped out on the scoring play to notch an assist.
The final tally came via a slap pass from the point by freshman defenseman Dan Renouf who was initially fed by redshirt-freshman defenseman Bill Norman. Sophomore forward Steven Swavely kept his stick on the ice and deflected the puck past Nadeau to cap the scoring.
The Black Bears outshot the Tigers by a 42-18 margin despite the disparity in penalty minutes.
“I thought we played really good as a team today,” Lomberg said. “We came out strong, it was exciting, it was a lot of fun and the Alfond was rocking and it was awesome. It was a good win, a good team win.”
Dalhousie will play one more exhibition game against Acadia University before their regular season begins at home against the University of Prince Edward Island Oct. 18.