The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s finally ended its scoring drought at 193 minutes and 20 seconds but Will Merchant’s power-play goal with 32.5 seconds left wasn’t enough to supply the Black Bears with their first victory as they fell to No. 5 UMass Lowell 2-1 Friday night at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Junior defenseman Michael Kapla’s goal with 10:25 left in the third period snapped a scoreless tie and C.J. Smith added an empty-net goal with 1:01 remaining.
Maine received a power play and pulled goalie Rob McGovern in favor of an extra attacker and Merchant scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season with 32.5 seconds remaining.
But the Black Bears couldn’t get the equalizer.
UMass Lowell improved to 7-1-2 overall and 3-0-2 in Hockey East.
Maine fell to 0-7-3 and 0-3-0. The Black Bears’ 11 goals is tied for the worst season-opening 10-game total in the history of the hockey program dating to 1977-78. The 2012-13 team also scored just 11 goals in its first 10 games.
The two teams will play again at 5 p.m. Sunday at the University of Maine’s Alfond Arena in Orono.
It will be Maine’s first home game of the season. The first 10 games were either at neutral sites or at the opponents’ rink.
Senior goalie Kevin Boyle made 28 saves while McGovern finished with 26 stops.
Kapla was set up at the point by Nick Master and Adam Chapie. He cleverly maneuvered around a Black Bear checker and snapped a screened shot past McGovern.
Smith expanded the lead when Joe Gambardella flipped the puck out of the defensive zone and he raced on to the puck and flipped it into the empty net.
Merchant’s goal ended an 0-for-32 power-play famine as he converted a pass from freshman defenseman Rob Michel, who picked up his first career point. Blaine Byron also earned an assist.
“We could have won the game. We could have won nine of our 10 games. That’s the truth,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “The guys executed very well. They played like a confident team. They battled like crazy. We had a lot of [scoring] chances. We just have to keep executing a little better every game like we have been.
“It’s coming and the guys know it’s coming,” added Gendron.
Gendron credited Boyle with playing very well and said “we got a great goaltending performance [from McGovern].”
“He made some quality saves. He gives us a chance to win every night,” said Maine junior alternate captain Cam Brown.
“We got a bunch of chances. We kept things simple. We did a lot of things well,” added Brown. “It was nice to get a goal at the end and to get it on the power play.”
“I think it will give us a boost to take into Sunday,” said Merchant.
Brown and Merchant both said it will be nice to finally play a home game.
Sophomore left wing Nolan Vesey missed the game because he was serving a one-game suspension for a spearing major he incurred at the end of last Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Boston College.
He will eligible to return on Sunday.