ORONO, Maine — Saturday night was a special one for University of Maine junior center Devin Shore.
Not only did he eclipse the 100-point mark for his career with his two goals and two assists, his mother, Andrea, teamed up with linemate Steven Swavely’s mother, Susan, to sing harmonic renditions of the Canadian and American national anthems before the game.
The women also sang the anthems last year.
“They were awesome,” said Shore. “My mom is very artistic. She’s good with music and arts and crafts. Along with that, she’s an incredible hockey mom.”
“After she sang, I skated down to her and gave her a wink and said, ‘Great job.’ That was a special moment for both of us.”
Shore was pleased to become the 53rd Black Bears player to reach 100 points.
“I’ve never been a big points guy but it’s cool to share that with this crowd and to do it at home,” said Shore. “I just wanted to do my part to get a win for our seniors [on Seniors Weekend]. The major spotlight was on them.
“It wasn’t the 100 points or who scored the goals. It was about those guys and a team effort which earned us to big Hockey East points,” said the UMaine captain.
The four seniors who played in their last Alfond Arena regular-season games were Connor Leen, Andrew Cerretani, Stu Higgins and Jake Rutt.
Vesey on scoring spree
The other player who had a memorable night was Shore’s linemate, freshman left wing Nolan Vesey, who collected his first collegiate hat trick and is 21st in the country among freshmen in points per game (0.68).
He has scored 10 goals and is one of 14 freshmen among the top 50 first-year players in points per game with 10 or more goals. Vesey has 10 goals and eight assists in his last 18 games.
“He’s a kid who has always known how to score, how to be in the right place. He has developed some playing habits that allow him to do what he does,” said Maine head coach Red Gendron. “Full marks to Nolan for working hard. It hasn’t been easy for him. He has had some days where I’ve been tough on him. That’s how it is but, obviously, he has responded and is having a decent freshman year.”
“He played great,” said Shore. “He has a really quick stick around the net and a great finishing touch. He was very deserving of his hat trick, and it’s that much better that it came in a win.”
Vesey has 11 assists to go with his 10 goals in 31 games.
Vesey and Shore were rejoined on that line by junior Swavely, who had three assists on Saturday to give that line five goals and five assists.
“On Friday night, we didn’t get much out of Nolan and Devin. They didn’t have a shot on goal,” said Gendron, who had Will Merchant on a line with them.
“So I was trying to jump-start them. Our guys know there are certain people we depend on to score for us in order for us to be successful. My job is to tinker with how we form up to see if I can help the team get a spark,” said Gendron. “At the end of the day, the players play. I’m not taking credit for that. The fact is we need our best players to be our best players [on game night]. Every team does. We’re no different. And our best players were our best players on Saturday night.”
Maine is 7-0 when Shore has a multiple-point game, 5-0 when Vesey does and 4-1 when Swavely has more than one point in a game.