The University of Maine Black Bears dropped two America East contests in Boston this weekend. The first against the No. 2 Boston University Terriers by a score of 3-2 in overtime on Friday night, and the second to No. 12 Boston College, who topped the Black Bears 4-1 Saturday. Maine drops to 3-9-1 on the season and 2-5 in conference play after the weekend of play.
Game 1:
The Black Bears fell to the No. 2 ranked Boston Terriers by a score of 3-2 in overtime Friday night at Boston University. BU sit atop the Hockey East leaderboard with a conference record of 6-1-1.
Black Bears fourth-year forward Connor Leen tallied a goal for the fourth consecutive game, this one short-handed, to help keep Maine competitive. Maine had a 2-0 lead in the second period and allowed two straight in the second half of the contest, before falling on a power play goal by BU first-year forward Jack Eichel in overtime.
Maine struck first early in the first period. First-year forward Liam Pecararo skated into the offensive zone and found second-year wing Cam Brown who fired a shot at Terriers third-year netminder Matt O’Connor. O’Connor deflected the puck out to the left faceoff circle where Black Bears third-year defender Ben Hutton retrieved the puck and sent a rebound shot by O’Connor to put Maine ahead 1-0.
The Black Bears doubled its lead just 56 seconds into the second period. Leen stole the puck at neutral ice and skated towards O’Connor. Losing his balance and falling to the ice, Leen swept the puck by O’Connor when he wasn’t expecting it to put Maine in a 2-0 commanding lead entering the third period.
Maine’s defense broke down in the second period, giving the Terriers an opportunity to come back and tie the game.
The first Terriers goal came by third-year forward Ahti Oksanen just over 4minutes into the final period of regulation. Eichel and Oksanen were moving up ice on a two-on-one rush towards Black Bears first-year goaltender Sean Romeo. Eichel chipped a pass across the crease to Oksanen to put the puck into the back of the net with ease to cut the Black Bears lead in half.
Boston’s third-year winger Matt Lane found the back of the net 5minutes later to even the score. Lane received a pass behind the net and brought it to the red line even with Romeo’s goalpost. Lane faked a shot from just feet away to move Romeo out of position. After the hesitation, Lane snuck the puck behind Romeo and into the net to even things at 2-2.
The Terriers only needed 2minutes of overtime play to put the Black Bears away.
First-year defender Brandon Fortunato made a pass to Eichel from behind the Terriers net after breaking up a Maine offensive rush. Eichel skated up the left side of the ice with speed. After crossing the blue line, instead of trying to beat the Black Bear defender separating him and Romeo, Eichel used the defender as a screen and slipped a wrist shot over the shoulder of Romeo to break the tie and notch the 3-2 win.
The Black Bears failed to convert all four power play opportunities in the game, while Boston converted only one, the game-winning goal in overtime. BU outshot Maine 36-28 in the contest.
Despite the three goals he gave up, Romeo made a career-high 33 saves in net for the Black Bears.
Game 2:
Boston College skated past the Black Bears with ease by a score of 4-1 Saturday night. The Eagles improve to 3-3 in conference play.
The Eagles struck first when fourth-year forward Destry Straight found third-year defensemen Teddy Doherty on an odd man rush. Straight made a pass in front of the crease to Doherty who chipped the puck past Black Bears goaltender Romeo for a 1-0 BC lead.
Maine responded quickly, and tallied their second short-handed goal of the weekend. Cam Brown stole the puck as the Eagles began a rush up ice, and headed towards BC netminder Thatcher Demko with fourth-year forward wing Connor Leen. Brown and Leen passed the puck back and forth numerous times before Leen finally took a shot that beat Demko’s outreaching arm to knot the score 1-1.
The Black Bears would fail to score another goal for the remainder of the game, while the Eagles tallied three consecutive goals in the final two periods.
Setting up in the offensive zone, BC’s Doherty took a shot that misfired by the net. On the other side was second-year forward Adam Gilmour, who netted the puck across the face of Romeo to the opposite post to take a 2-1 lead.
Straight tallied a goal of his own just minutes later. Moving up ice on an offensive rush, he fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle through traffic that beat Romeo to the back of the net to extend the Eagles lead.
Finally, Eagles first-year forward Alex Tuch found the back of the net to round out the Eagles’ night of scoring early in the final period. Tuch received a pass in the same position as Straight and fired a similar shot that Romeo failed to deflect with his stick to propel BC to the 4-1 victory.
Romeo falls to 1-6-0 in net for the Black Bears after the weekend of play. He made 23 saves in game two, while Demko made 22 and improves to 7-4-0 between the posts for the Eagles.
Boston College outshot the Eagles 27-23 in the contest.
The Black Bears return to action on Nov. 28 against the University of Vermont Catamounts at Alfond Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.