ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine hockey team attempted 81 shots compared to the University of Connecticut’s 36 Friday night and 44 of them went on net.
But UConn junior goalie Rob Nichols stopped all 44 of them in a superb performance and the Black Bears hit two posts and missed the net on a few other glorious chances as UConn notched a 1-0 Hockey East victory over the struggling Black Bears in front of 3,215 at Alfond Arena.
Nichols, who stopped 71 of 74 shots in a win and a tie against UMaine a year ago, made 19 Grade-A saves among his career-high 44 as UConn improved to 8-13-1 overall, 4-7-1 in Hockey East.
He had made 20 saves in a 3-0 win over Arizona State in the Huskies’ last game and the back-to-back shutouts are the first in school history.
Senior left wing Shawn Pauly scored the game’s only goal in the first period.
UMaine fell to 5-13-4 and 2-6-1. The Black Bears have been shut out seven times this season and have scored one goal or less 12 times.
Freshman Rob McGovern made 18 saves for UMaine including 10 Grade-A’s.
The teams will play again 7 p.m. Saturday.
“Our goaltender stole us a game,” said UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh. “We played well the first 10 minutes but Maine controlled the game the last 50 minutes. They were beating us to pucks.”
“I saw the puck really well. They had a lot of first shot opportunities but not many second shots and those are the tougher saves,” Nichols said.
Pauly’s goal came at the 6:24 mark of the initial period off assists by freshmen linemates Max Letunov and Tage Thompson.
Thompson slid a pass across to Letunov in the middle of the slot, and Letunov took a weak wrister that hit the skate of Blaine Byron and came right back to him.
While falling to the ice, Letunov flipped the puck softly toward the net, and McGovern made the save.
The rebound spilled to the left of McGovern, and Pauly did a 180-degree spin before sweeping the puck just inside the near post from a tight angle.
It was the seventh consecutive game Maine has surrendered the game’s first goal and the Black Bears are 1-5-1 in that stretch.
UMaine began carrying the play later in the period and it carried over into the second period when Nolan Vesey and Byron both hit the post.
Vesey’s short wrister hit the post to Nichols’ right and then Byron found himself staring at an exposed net when Steven Swavely’s pass deflected over to him off a UConn stick.
But Byron’s shot hit the crossbar.
UMaine completely dominated the second period, but Nichols stopped all 21 shots he faced.
He also received a huge break with three minutes left in the period when UMaine freshman Brendan Robbins missed a wide open net off a pass from Byron, who maneuvered out of the corner and threaded a perfect pass to him.
Robbins received the puck on the backhand and pushed it back across the grain and wide of the post from 15 feet out.
“That was a lucky bounce,” Nichols said. “I didn’t even see [Robbins] at the back door. I was playing [Byron] and he made a great play. Sometimes guys have too much time and they grip the stick [and miss].”
Just before that opportunity, Robbins had a breakaway on Nichols only to have the goalie make a blocker save off his backhander.
UConn managed just six shots on goal in the middle period but had two quality chances that were stopped by McGovern.
McGovern stopped Pauly’s breakaway by sliding across to get his pad on Pauly’s backhander and, moments later, he dove with both arms to smother a point-blank backhander by Letunov.
The Letunov save was verified by a video replay as one referee had called it a goal only to have it overruled by the other ref.
Maine captain Swavely said despite the loss, he considered it an “encouraging” performance and head coach Red Gendron echoed a similar sentiment.
“I want to see them rewarded when they play that hard,” he said.