Sophomore goalie Cal Petersen made 40 saves and the University of Notre Dame received a goal and two assists from sophomore center Jake Evans to deal the University of Maine its fourth straight loss, 5-1, at the Compton Family Ice Arena on Saturday night.
Notre Dame is now 18-5-7 overall and moved into sole possession of first place in Hockey East with its 14-2-2 record.
Notre Dame has won four straight, eight of its last nine and is 13-1-3 over its last 17 games.
Maine is now 7-19-6 and 4-12-2 and the Black Bears find themselves in 11th place, three points out of eighth place with four games left. Eighth place is the final home ice berth for the first round of the best-of-three Hockey East playoffs.
It was the 17th time this season Maine has scored one goal or less in a game.
Evans gave Notre Dame the lead for good 13:55 into the first period before Sam Herr extended the lead 31 seconds into the second period. Connor Hurley added a five-on-three goal at the 14:09 mark of the period.
Anders Bjork and Dylan Malmquist added third-period goals 1:31 apart before Brendan Robbins ruined Petersen’s bid for his first shutout of the season with 2:49 remaining.
Evans opened the scoring when he used a couple of nifty moves to maneuver around Maine defenseman Sam Becker before pulling the puck across the low slot and tucking the puck between Maine goalie Matt Morris’ pads.
Herr extended the lead when he pounced on a loose puck off a rebound and slid the puck past Morris from just beyond the crease.
Maine generated 11 of the middle period’s first 17 shots on goal but consecutive penalties 2:30 apart on Danny Perez were followed by a too many men on the ice penalty and the Fighting Irish capitalized when Jordan Gross’ one-timer from the high slot produced a rebound and Hurley flipped it into the open net with the two-man advantage.
“One defenseman came off the ice and two jumped on,” explained Maine coach Red Gendron about the too-many-men-on-the ice call.
Freshman Rob McGovern replaced Morris and stopped all seven shots he faced over the final 12:35.
Freshman Robbins scored his second goal in three games and third in six games when he busted unattended to the far post and tapped in a perfect pass from Steven Swavely.
“We made some mistakes and they capitalized. We didn’t capitalize on our chances,” said Maine captain Swavely who added that five penalties they took in the second period gave Notre Dame “offensive momentum and took ours away.
“We have to be more disciplined,” he said.
Cedric Lacroix and Brian Morgan were also assessed penalties in the middle period.
Maine outshot Notre Dame 41-35.
“We carried the play after we fell behind 2-0,” said Gendron who felt the score was misleading. “We played much better than we did on Friday night. We had a lot more chances.”