It was more of the same for the University of Maine men’s hockey team on Thursday night.
Freshman defenseman Wyatt Newpower’s power-play goal with 18 seconds left in the second period snapped a 3-3 tie, and the University of Connecticut went on to post a 6-3 victory over the Black Bears at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The Huskies improved to 9-7-6 overall, 5-3-2 in Hockey East, and the last place Black Bears fell to 7-11-3 and 1-7-1, respectively.
UMaine’s road winless streak was extended to 16 games (0-13-3).
The loss extended UMaine’s Hockey East winless streak to six games (0-5-1).
UConn is 3-0-2 in its five games vs. UMaine since joining Hockey East.
The teams will play again at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Fenway Park in Boston.
Freshman goalie Adam Huska made 23 saves in posting the win, and Matt Morris made 32 stops for the Black Bears.
“We’ve got to be better defensively,” said UMaine coach Red Gendron.
“Every time we made a mistake in the defensive zone, they capitalized,” said UMaine senior center and captain Cam Brown. “We’ve got to clean up the defensive zone.”
UMaine’s Rob Michel opened the scoring but Spencer Naas and Max Kalter scored later in the first period to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead.
Brendan Robbins tied it early in the second period before Tage Thompson restored the lead for UConn.
Nolan Vesey tied it for the last time just 1:31 later before Newpower notched his game-winner.
UMaine had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the third period when its red-hot power play had a five-on-three for 39 seconds, but the Black Bears failed to capitalize.
UMaine had entered the game with at least one power play in its previous six games (13-for-29, 44.8 percent), but it went 0-for-4 Thursday night.
“They did a good job getting in the lane and blocking shots. We weren’t able to get our shots through,” said UMaine senior left wing Blaine Byron.
The Huskies extended the lead when Kasperi Ojantakanen scored with 5:41 remaining, and Thompson added an empty-net goal.
On the game-winner, Robbins wasn’t able to get much on his clearing attempt and the puck landed right on Newpower’s stick.
Newpower took a few strides and beat Morris over his glove from the top of the right circle.
Michel had started the scoring by diverting a Brown pass behind Huska but Naas answered 3:50 later when he one-timed a pass from Falmouth native Ben Freeman past Morris.
Kalter deflected Max Letunov’s power play shot from the point past Morris.
Robbins tied it 6:32 into the second period when he converted a Brown pass, but Thompson made it 3-2 at the 13:31 mark with a one-timer off a Kalter feed.
Vesey responded 1:31 later when he fired home a turnaround shot from the high slot off a faceoff.