PORTLAND, Maine — University of New Hampshire sophomore center Andrew Poturalski scored his nation-leading 17th goal of the season and linemate Dan Correale scored his 11th and 12th as the Wildcats held off the University of Maine Black Bears 5-4 in a wild nonconference affair at the Cross Insurance Arena on Monday night.
Poturalski’s goal gave UNH a 4-2 lead and triggered a flurry of four goals in a span of 5:34 midway through the third period.
Will Merchant’s second goal of the game cut it to 4-3 3:37 later but Correale’s second power-play goal re-established the two-goal margin 1:17 later.
Maine responded 40 seconds later with a goal by Dan Renouf but the Black Bears couldn’t get the equalizer as Danny Tirone made a clutch save off Steven Swavely and another Swavely shot hit the crossbar.
“I think the first shot hit [Tirone] in the head. He made a good save. I got the rebound but I hit the crossbar,” said Maine senior captain Swavely. “That’s hockey.”
UNH extended its unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1) including two wins and a tie at the expense of the Black Bears.
The Wildcats are now 7-6-4 while Maine fell to 4-10-4.
For the second straight year, UNH topped Maine in Portland as the Wildcats carved out a 7-4 victory last season.
The two teams will play again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“We did a lot of good things but we made too many mistakes,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “Not one player was completely sharp.
“We have to be a lot sharper. We have to be more precise, more disciplined and more thorough if we’re going to get wins. We took some penalties we shouldn’t have, we had a couple of puck management issues and some coverage issues,” added Gendron. “We lacked discipline in our systems. They didn’t lead to goals but they led to power plays that resulted in goals.”
UNH never trailed as Jason Salvaggio and Ara Nazarian staked the Wildcats to a 2-0 lead with goals 6:37 apart late in the first period.
Merchant’s team-leading seventh goal sliced the lead in half 29 seconds into the second period but UNH restored its two-goal lead on Correale’s power-play goal at the 11:33 mark which extended UNH’s streak of consecutive games with a power-play goal to six.
Eric Schurhamer celebrated his return to the lineup after missing 10 games with a lower body injury by scoring on the power play with 3:35 remaining in the middle period to cut it to 3-2.
Salvaggio opened the scoring against the run of play at the 12:05 mark of the opening period.
Jamie Hill took a pass from John Furgele and fired a slap shot that produced a long rebound off the pad of Rob McGovern.
Salvaggio beat McGovern with a shot from the top of the left circle.
Nazarian extended the lead when he was left alone in front of the net and one-timed a precise pass from Shane Eiserman behind the helpless McGovern.
Merchant opened the second period by converting a Blaine Byron pass as his shot found its way through Tirone.
Correale tipped a Furgele pass behind a screened McGovern before Schurhamer’s point shot deflected into the net off a UNH defenseman.
Poturalski made it 4-2 at the 8:02 mark of the final period when he jammed home a Matt Dawson rebound during a scramble.
Merchant’s second goal came on the power play as his slapper from the inner half of the left circle beat Tirone.
Correale answered when a Tyler Kelleher pass slipped across to him and he deposited it into an exposed net.
Renouf blasted a shot from the high slot past Tirone.
UNH went 2-for-6 on the power play and is now 5-for-13 with the man-advantage in its three games against the Black Bears. UNH is 10-for-31 on the power play in its last six games.
Maine went 2-for-4 on the power play and that’s the first time this season the Black Bears have scored more than one power play goal in a game.
Tirone finished with 31 saves while McGovern wound up with 29 stops.