Providence College’s mastery over the University of Maine Black Bear men’s hockey team continued Friday night.
The Friars spotted the Black Bears a Stu Higgins goal in the first period before answering with four straight goals to cruise to a 5-2 Hockey East victory at Schneider Arena in Providence, Rhode Island.
Senior left wing Shane Luke and freshman linemate Brian Pinho had a goal and two assists apiece and the third member of the line, senior center Ross Mauermann, had a goal and an assist as 13th-ranked Providence improved to 20-11-2 overall, 12-8-1 in Hockey East.
The Friars are now 8-0-1 in their last nine games against Maine, including six consecutive wins at Schneider Arena.
Maine fell to 13-19-3 and 8-11-2, respectively, and dropped from eighth to 10th place in Hockey East.
New Hampshire beat Merrimack 4-1 to take over eighth. UConn, a 4-0 winner over UMass, and Maine are one point behind New Hampshire but UConn would win the tiebreaker vs. Maine because it won the season series 1-0-1.
Maine plays Providence on Saturday night and New Hampshire hosts Merrimack. UConn has concluded its regular season schedule.
Mauermann began the string of unanswered goals by scoring at the 7:23 mark of the first period, 2:29 after Higgins had staked Maine to a 1-0- lead.
Pinho, Luke and Brooks Behling broke the game open over the final 8:42 of the second period.
Ben Hutton’s shorthanded goal 8:01 into the third period gave the Black Bears a short-lived lifeline but Noel Acciari answered just 44 seconds later on the same power play to sew it up.
Acciari’s goal snapped an 0-for-18 power-play drought for the Friars.
“That killed our momentum,” said Maine’s Hutton.
Pinho gave the Friars the lead for good at the 11:18 mark of the second period when he beat Maine goalie Matt Morris with a wraparound for his fifth goal of the season.
Luke expanded the lead at the 15:55 mark when he was left unattended at the far post and chipped a Steven McParland pass behind Morris for his 10th goal of the year.
Behling made it 4-1 with 30 seconds left in the period as he scored off a two-on-one by firing a Kevin Rooney pass behind Morris for his second goal of the season.
Hutton’s eighth goal came off a pass from Devin Shore but Acciari tipped home a Tom Parisi shot from the point.
Higgins opened the scoring with his first goal since Jan. 18, 2014.
Brady Campbell stripped Parisi of the puck and fed it to Higgins in the slot and he beat Providence goalie Jon Gillies.
But Mauermann notched his 10th with a slap shot from the point off a Luke drop pass.
Gillies finished with 19 saves, including seven of the Grade-A variety (high-percentage) while Morris had 37 stops of which 16 were Grade-A’s.
PC had a 32-14 edge in Grade A scoring chances.
“We played pretty well in the first period but we made foolish mistakes in the second period and it was 4-1 going into the third,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “We didn’t win enough battles, we didn’t generate enough offense and we didn’t play smart enough defensively.”
“We have to be more aggressive and more physical on Saturday,” said senior alternate captain Higgins. “We didn’t have the jump we needed. We haven’t played well here in a couple of years. It’s a man’s game and when you play Providence, you have to man-up.”
“We didn’t get much going (offensively) until the third period,” said Hutton. “We have to bring more effort.”
Higgins added, “We woke up a little in the third but it was too late.”