MANCHESTER, N.H. — The University of Maine men’s hockey team spotted the University of New Hampshire a 2-0 lead before rallying for five unanswered goals to snap an eight-game losing streak with a 5-2 triumph at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday night.
It was a non-conference game between the Hockey East rivals. They will play again at 7 p.m. Saturday night in Portland.
Maine is now 4-12-1, while UNH fell to 4-10-1. UNH is winless in its last six (0-5-1).
Maine received unanswered second-period goals by Blaine Byron, Nolan Vesey and Malcolm Hayes to take its first lead. Will Merchant and Ben Hutton expanded the lead to 5-2 in the third period.
UNH had built a 2-0 lead on Colin MacDonald’s first-period goal and Shane Eiserman’s early second-period goal.
“This was a nice win,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “We started off slowly. But we did a million good things. Credit to the players.”
UNH had the better of play in the first period as the Wildcats used their quickness to create scoring chances and sustain their forecheck.
But the Black Bears began taking charge of the game in the second period as they upped their physical play and were able to cycle the puck in the New Hampshire zone at the expense of UNH’s youthful defense corps.
“Our grittiness was the key,” said Maine senior defenseman Jake Rutt. “We played to our identity. We’re a blue collar team.”
“We kept things simple and we were a lot more physical tonight,” added Merchant.
The Maine players felt they wore UNH down as the game progressed.
Byron cut the lead in half 2:20 after Eiserman had converted a two-on-one with a snap shot from the right circle that slipped between the pads of Maine goalie Sean Romeo.
Hutton’s shot from the point squeezed through a crowded goalmouth to the far post where Byron tapped it into the open net.
Vesey tied it on the power play when he parked in front of the net and directed a Devin Shore slap shot behind UNH goalie Adam Clark.
Hayes gave Maine the lead for good after Brady Campbell pried the puck free with a thundering hit on UNH’s John Furgele, which buckled the freshman defenseman.
Maine was able to cycle the puck to the net front, and Hayes received the puck at the top of the crease off a Rutt shot before moving it from his forehand to backhand and tucking it inside the post to Clark’s right.
“Brady did all the work. They had a guy on the shooting lane, so I moved it to my backhand,” said Hayes, who snapped a nine-game pointless drought.
Merchant scored his first goal of the season at the 3:29 mark of the final period after being set up by linemates Devin Shore and Andrew Tegeler.
Merchant was parked at the edge of the crease and swept home a loose puck.
“Devin’s shot hit the goalie’s [right] pad and came to me. [Clark] stopped my first shot, and I knocked in the rebound,” said Merchant.
Hutton iced it at the 9:21 mark as a power play concluded.
He faked a shot to get a better shooting lane and then wristed the puck past the screened Clark.
Gendron, whose team was 1-3 when leading after the second period, said he liked what he saw from his team in the third period.
“They attacked,” said Gendron. “It’s one thing to tell them to attack, but it’s another thing to have them execute it. They did tonight.”
The Wildcats took a deserved 1-0 lead into the intermission as MacDonald scored his third goal of the season at the 4:58 mark of the first period.
UNH had the better of the chances over the first 20 minutes, although the Black Bears had a few glittering chances.
Early in the game, Merchant fed an open Shore in the middle of the slot, but Shore missed the short side corner.
Byron squandered a glorious chance shortly after when he stickhandled cleverly from right to left across the slot to create a shooting lane, but he shot it into Clark, who was laying on the ice.
Moments later, an unattended MacDonald had to simply swat the puck into an open net when Dylan Chanter’s wrist shot from the right point deflected over to him at the top of the crease. It was freshman defenseman Chanter’s first career point in his fourth game.
Maine outshot UNH 34-28.
Romeo finished with 26 saves as he put together a third straight strong outing. He stopped a Matt Willows breakaway in the second period.
Shore had three assists for Maine.