Junior right wing Nick Saracino scored a pair of goals and the Providence College Friars relegated the University of Maine hockey team to a 10th-place finish in Hockey East by virtue of a 5-2 victory at Schneider Arena in Providence Saturday night.
Maine, which wound up 13-20-3 and 8-12-2 in Hockey East, will visit No. 7 seed Vermont (18-12-4, 10-9-3 HE) for a best-of-three first-round series next weekend.
Vermont has beaten Maine in their last seven meetings, including four times this season.
Providence improved to 21-11-2 overall, 13-8-1 in Hockey East, and earned a first-round bye by virtue of finishing second in the conference.
It was Providence’s sixth straight win over Maine and extended its unbeaten streak vs. Maine to 10 games (9-0-1).
The Friars have won the last seven meetings at Schneider Arena, including a 5-2 triumph on Friday night.
Maine has now surrendered 34 goals in its last eight games and its 20-loss season is its first since the 2008-09 team went 13-22-4.
Ross Mauermann and Mark Jankowski scored nine seconds apart early in the first period to give the Friars a lead they would never relinquish.
Mauermann scored with a screened shot from the point before Jankowski beat Maine goalie Sean Romeo from the middle of the slot.
Shane Luke’s shorthanded goal off a Mauermann pass on a two-on-one made it 3-0 7:03 into the second period but Dan Renouf’s power-play goal on a shot from the point and Blaine Byron’s shorthanded goal 3:37 apart pulled the Black Bears within 3-2 with 8:10 left in the period.
Byron took a pass from Cam Brown, stopped in front of PC goalie Jon Gilles of South Portland and tucked a backhander behind him.
But Saracino scored on the power play at the 13:31 mark and he added an important insurance goal 21 seconds into the third period.
Forty seconds after the Byron goal, with Will Merchant still serving a hooking penalty, Conor Riley was assessed a cross-checking penalty.
Maine killed off the 37-second five-on-three but Saracino converted with the one-man advantage 24 seconds after Merchant’s penalty had elapsed.
Saracino knocked home the rebound of a Noel Acciari shot during a flurry in front.
“We fought hard to get back into the game but they made us pay on the power play. We were in the penalty box a little too much,” said Maine captain Devin Shore.
Maine gave the Friars eight power-play opportunities including that five-on-three and a five-minute major on Jake Rutt for boarding.
“We took a lot of penalties and we can’t afford to do that,” Maine coach Red Gendron said. “We have to be more disciplined. We started to get where we needed to be but we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Saracino made it 5-2 with a wraparound goal just 21 seconds into the third period.
South Portland’s Gillies made 17 saves for the Friars and extended his record vs. Maine to 8-0-1.
Romeo made 39 saves for Maine.
Romeo finished with 17 Grade-A (high-percentage) saves among his 39 while Gillies had just five among his 17.
Providence generated 31 Grade-A scoring chances to Maine’s nine.
Maine was without sophomore defenseman Eric Schurhamer, who suffered a leg injury in Friday night’s loss.
“We had more push and fight-back tonight but we can’t look at it that way,” said Shore. “We didn’t get the job done.”
“We competed harder than we did on Friday night but it wasn’t enough,” said Gendron. “What we have found this year is when we are lacking in any part of our game or if certain guys aren’t having a good night, then we don’t get the results we want.”
Mauermann had an assist to go with his goal and Brown had two assists for Maine.
Gendron and Shore are looking forward to the playoffs.
“It’s a brand new season. You wipe the slate clean. We know what we have to do to be successful. Our 36 games have taught us that,” said Gendron.