ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s men’s hockey team expected a low-scoring, tight-checking Hockey East quarterfinal series against stingy Merrimack College and the Warriors’ outstanding senior goalie Joe Cannata.
That came to fruition Friday night but the Black Bears used second-period goals from Joey Diamond and Kyle Beattie to erase a 1-0 deficit and post a hard-fought 2-1 win.
Dan Sullivan finished with 20 saves but just six of those were of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety as the Black Bears did a thorough job defensively and spent a lot of time in the Merrimack end where they peppered 43 shots at Cannata.
Cannata wound up with 41 saves of which 13 were Grade-A’s.
“It was a battle,” said Sullivan. “We got a lot of shots but Joe did a great job and, luckily, we were able to get two past him.”
Maine improved to 21-11-3 overall while Merrimack fell to 17-11-7. The teams will play game two on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Diamond and Beattie scored 4:14 apart midway through the second period and Maine protected the lead.
Mike Collins staked the Warriors to a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal in the first period.
Maine has now allowed just two goals in its last three games.
“It’s the playoffs and you have to play both sides of the puck. I thought we played very well tonight,” said Maine senior left wing Spencer Abbott, whose long pass set up Diamond’s tying goal on a breakaway.
Diamond had come off the bench on a line change and was all alone behind the Warrior defense at the offensive blue line.
“The whole bench was yelling at me to pass it to Joey,” said Abbott.
Diamond had plenty of time to pick his spot and he put it over Cannata’s glove.
“I made a head fake to extend him a little and then I put it upstairs,” said Diamond, whose goal was his 23rd of the season.
Stu Higgins also picked up an assist on the goal.
Beattie scored his sixth goal 4:14 later from the base of the faceoff circle to Cannata’s left.
“John and I worked an exchange and I think it threw their defensemen off,” said Beattie. “I saw a little room (on the short side) and I just tried to get it off quick.”
“He put it glove side,” said Cannata.
Brice O’Connor and Parker notched assists.
Maine outshot Merrimack 19-6 in the second period but Cannata made six Grade-A saves to keep his team within striking distance.
Merrimack mustered just one Grade-A shot on goal in the middle period and that was saved by Sullivan.
Collins scored his 10th of the year at the 15:33 mark of the first period and it came with 41 seconds left on a five-minute power play resulting from an elbowing penalty on Jon Swavely.
Swavely was also assessed a game misconduct but will be able to play on Saturday.
Sophomore center Shawn Bates, the victim of the hit, had to be taken to the locker room and didn’t return. He was taken to a local hospital after the game.
Collins took a pass from Connor Toomey, curled out of the corner to the left of Sullivan and snapped the puck over the goalie’s glove into the short-side corner.
Maine outshot Merrimack 12-7 in the period but Cannata stopped them all including four of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety.
The Warriors mounted some sustained pressure in the third period but Sullivan was sharp and came up with four of his six Grade-A saves in the final 20 minutes.
Sullivan made one save on a three-shot flurry by Jesse Todd on a Merrimack power play early in the period and his defense blocked the other two.
Later in the period, Rhett Bly was able to get half a step on Maine defenseman Mark Nemec as he busted down the left wing but Sullivan came out and held the short side to make the save.
The Warriors also had a few flurries after Cannata came to the bench in favor of the extra attacker but Sullivan made a few saves and Maine was able to get a few vital clears.
“We worked really hard,” said Beattie. “We had a great crowd and that raised our energy level.”
Maine coach Tim Whitehead said it was “exactly what we expected.
“It was a hard-fought game. Both goalies were fabulous. There was a lot of traffic in front of both of them. It was very challenging for them.”
He was pleased with his team’s performance, saying they stayed focused and executed the game plan throughout.
Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy and senior center Todd said the Warriors didn’t play up to potential.
“The first two periods we were really scrambly. We did a lot of circling,” said Dennehy. “We executed the game plan in the third and got some pretty good looks.
“With the exception of Cannata and (defenseman Karl) Stollery, our best players didn’t play their best,” said Dennehy.
“There was a lack of effort in the first and second periods,” concurred Todd. “We didn’t play our game.”
Way to go boys! Tough battle, finish the job tonite.
Nice win Black Bears….game two Saturday night…..put that one in the win column and head for TD Garden next weekend…..great game!
Great TEAM win Maine! You worked hard and won the small battles! Hat is off Sully, fantastic!
Way to be the puck Joey D.!
Need to stay out of the sin bin tomorrow night though Blue, somehow…….
Coach, the refs are not giving your boys a fair shake……. Mangene with 5 penaltys, no way! 5 minute major on Swavely for an obvious accidental hit…….
Maine fans do not let there be an empty seat in the barn tomorrow night, these boys are working hard and deserve a completely packed house!
Pick up where you left off boys and carry the intensity into tomorrow one period at a time! Go Blue!!!
Swavely’s hit was definitely not accidental. It was a deliberate elbow to the head as he skated by the player. Watch the replay.
Good win for the good guys! No let downs tonight!
were you at the game to see the hit in person??? looked like swavely went to play the puck and got his elbow up to high and so on.
Nope, had the benefit if instant replay in slow motion. He skated by him and threw the elbow.
It was a 2 minute penalty and nothing more than that.
Thought it was worth the 5…probably concussed the Merrimack guy who didn’t return and had to be helped off the ice…also watched the replay….stuck the shoulder elbow out and clipped his head…thought the refs were terrible but that was a good call
Agree on the penalty box….. Too many after whistle penalties……if the puck is in front of Sullivan then absolutely keep the opposition out of his space after play is halted…..on the other end, skate away when the whistle blows…..too much time with after whistle minutes off the ice…..
Vintage Playoff Hockey…Goaltending excellant at both ends…end to end rushes…plenty of hitting….with that said UNDER 4000 at the game…that is Dissappointing for QF’s @ Alfond Arena.
Great effort Maine! Yes the crowd was not at capacity BUT the Alfond atmosphere lived up to its reputation. Joey’s breakaway goal was superb. There was a good sized section of yeller jerseys rooting for Merrimack but the Bears kept our home crowd in it all night. Lots to cheer about. Maine beat the other team and the refs too. Poorly officiated game. Lets finish this off tonight and head for Boston!
Great game Maine…..we have to come to a reality for the ref calling for our games as of lately since we seem to be the big bad Bruins of college hockey and have to call every single little thing on US…..but a great win is what we needed, even though I was there and watched it on tv, I was pretty upset on how they said there was probably 200 Merrimack fans there, we cant allow that sort of thing in our home arena! Though its to late and it’ll be the same way tonight ill be there yelling, LOL. Lets finish this off tonight and move onto bigger and better things!!
with so many empty seats, why was Whitehead so adament about the great fan turnout in his post game interview? That’s probably the smallest crowd in Alfond history for a HE playoff game at 3904. Now they are definitely in the NCAA Tourney, although there was never a doubt to be honest.
Campus is on vacation…
Again, lowest in UMO history. Is this the 1st game they played a HE playoff during break? Of course not. Nice try Mrs Whitehead ;) Anymore excuses????????????????????????
My my aren’t we prickly today…
:-)
they’re not definitely in the tourny still, if Merrimack beats them twice, which i don’t think will happen, but if it did maine would be right in the middle of the bubble, especially after UMass fell of the TUC cliff.
Merrimack dropped from 15th pwr to 17th with that loss last night, and Maine could drop out of the top 12 if they lose the next 2. They need to win tonight and perhaps even win 1 game at the garden, unless that game is against UNH, which won’t help them in the PWR.
I didn’t get to see any of the game, but given the scores of the other games in the league, I guess no one can complain of the close score. BC beat UMass by the same score. Maine really wants to finish this tonight and not give the Warriors a sniff of victory.
Finish them off tonight. Show no mercy at all.
The singing of the National Anthem before the game was beautiful! Obviously a very experienced and well trained singer. And he respected both the lyrics and the melody rather than tryiong to improvise another contemporary version. I don’t object to young singers of any age doing the Anthem but ever since Whitney Houston’s Super Bowl performance of it we haven’t heard a legitimate rendition. And many of the fans actually looked very moved by it. No premature cheering at the end either. Can’t we give the Anthem the decent respect it deserves?