Another disappointing University of Maine men’s hockey season came to an end Saturday night.
Mario Puskarich and Craig Puffer broke open a close game by scoring goals 12 seconds apart late in the second period as the University of Vermont ousted the Black Bears from the first round of the Hockey East playoffs with a 5-1 victory at the Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, Vermont.
Sixth seed Vermont had won the opener of the best-of-three series 5-0 on Friday night.
Freshman goalie Stefanos Lekkas made 36 saves for the Catamounts (20-11-5), who travel to No. 3 Boston College for the quarterfinals next weekend.
The 11th-seeded Black Bears (11-21-4) won only one of their last 10 games (1-8-1) and have gone 22 games without a win on the road (0-18-4) dating back to a 5-4 victory at Massachusetts on Jan. 30, 2016.
UMaine is 1-10-1 in its last 12 games at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
First-period goals by Brendan Bradley and Rob Hamilton (power play) staked Vermont to a 2-0 lead but the Black Bears carried the play in the second period and cut the lead in half when Rob Michel scored a power-play goal at the 6:55 mark.
But a cross-checking penalty on Peter Housakos with 6:45 left in the middle period gave Vermont a power-play opportunity and Puskarich cashed in as he beat UMaine goalie Matt Morris with a backhander from the inner circle off a pass from Bradley.
On the ensuing faceoff, the Catamounts broke into the UMaine zone and Brady Shaw fed Puffer in the slot and he converted.
“Those two goals were backbreakers,” UMaine junior left wing Nolan Vesey said. “Lekkas had one of those weekends where everything hit him. We couldn’t get the puck by him.”
UMaine outshot Vermont 17-8 in the middle period but could only put one behind Lekkas, who on Friday became the first goalie to ever shut out UMaine in a Hockey East playoff game. That dates back to the inception of the league during the 1984-1985 season.
Matt Alvaro put the finishing touches on the triumph with a power-play, empty-net goal with 22 seconds remaining.
Bradley, Puffer and Puskarich each scored in both series games.
Bradley opened the scoring 6:33 into the game when he pounced on a loose puck, broke in on Morris and made a little fake before flipping a backhander that glanced off Morris’ shoulder into the net.
Hamilton extended the lead with 2:08 left in the period when he gathered in the puck off a Mark Hamilton turnover, walked the puck to the middle of the ice and beat Morris.
Vermont outshot UMaine 12-9 in the first period.
The Black Bears played with a sense of urgency in the second period, and they were rewarded when Michel one-timed a Blaine Byron pass past Lekkas. Cam Brown also assisted on the goal.
But that was the only goal UMaine was able to muster as it was stymied by Lekkas and the Catamounts.
“We played real well for most of the game,” UMaine coach Red Gendron said. “Their goalie made a ton of big saves. That’s the bottom line.
“We had a good performance in the first period but we got down 2-0. We scored a nice power-play goal in the second period and had much, much better of the play but we didn’t score any more goals in that time period just like we didn’t score last night.
“Their goalie play superbly. That’s all I can tell you,” Gendron said.
Senior Morris made 16 saves and allowed four goals through two periods before sophomore Rob McGovern came on to play the third period and finished with eight saves.
Senior Puskarich had two assists to go with his goal and wound up with eight goals and five assists in his career against the Black Bears.
Brown, Byron, Morris and defenseman Eric Schurhamer played their last games for UMaine.