ORONO, Maine —— It was Seniors Night at Alfond Arena, but it was a freshman who stole the show on Saturday.
Left wing Nolan Vesey scored three goals for his first collegiate hat trick to lead the University of Maine Black Bears to a 6-3 men’s hockey victory over Northeastern University.
Maine snapped its four-game Alfond Arena winless streak (0-3-1) and took over sole possession of eighth place in Hockey East.
Junior center Devin Shore had two goals and two assists as Maine improved to 13-18-3 overall, 8-10-2 in Hockey East. He scored what proved to be the game-winner in the second period and added an empty-netter.
Connor Leen, one of four seniors honored before and after the game, had the other goal and Steven Swavely had three assists.
Northeastern had its seven-game winning streak and nine-game unbeaten skein (8-0-1) snapped.
NU is now 15-12-4 and 10-8-2, respectively.
The Huskies received goals from Dylan Sikura, Mike McMurtry and Garret Cockerill.
“It’s nice to get a hat trick but it’s even better to get a win. And we all wanted to get the win for our seniors,” said Vesey referring to Stu Higgins, Jake Rutt, Andrew Cerretani and Leen.
“We played great for all three periods,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “We played physical, we played hard, we won battles, all the stuff we were hoping to do last night. And we got the result we were after.”
Maine had lost to NU 6-4 on Friday night, giving up four first-period goals.
Gendron said the decisive factor in the win was the “attitude and intensity we came out with to play tonight.”
Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said Maine was “the better team tonight” and noted that Maine was more physical than it was on Friday night. He also said the fact the referees didn’t call more penalties was advantageous to Maine.
Northeastern junior left wing and leading scorer Kevin Roy said Maine played “pretty well” beginning with a strong first period.
“They did a good job in their own zone and their goaltender [Matt Morris] played better,” said Roy.
Vesey opened the scoring by one-timing a diagonal pass from Shore behind a helpless Derick Roy after Dan Renouf had intercepted a clearing pass.
“Dan gave Devin a great pass and Devin gave me an even better pass. I just had to tap it in,” said Vesey.
Dylan Sikura’s third goal in two nights and fourth of the season tied it at the 14:37 mark as he swept a bouncing puck behind Morris.
Leen gave Maine the lead for good at the 15:49 mark when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Eric Schurhamer behind Roy.
“It started in the defensive zone. I gave the puck to Schurhamer and he carried it up the wall. Cedric [Lacroix] drove to the net and I was on the weak side. Eric passed it across and my shot went five-hole,” said Leen.
Vesey made it 3-1 3:15 in the second period by courtesy of a multiple-shot flurry on the power play.
“There was a scrum in front, I found the puck and put it home,” said Vesey.
Mike McMurtry answered nine seconds later with a wrister off a two-on-one.
But Shore made it 4-2 with a slap shot from the midpoint off a Rutt pass.
Vesey made it 5-3 4:26 into the third period when Schurhamer’s wrister from the left point deflected to him off Steven Swavely’s stick and he one-timed it over Roy’s glove.
Garret Cockerill’s shot from the midpoint cut the lead to 5-3 with 5:44 left but Shore iced it.
Maine outshot NU 29-24.