ORONO, Maine — University of Maine sophomore defenseman Patrick Holway made his 2017-18 debut a memorable one Saturday night.
Holway, who missed the first three games due to an upper body injury, scored a goal and assisted on two others as the Black Bears scored five first-period goals en route to a 6-3 victory over the University of Miami (Ohio) at Alfond Arena.
UMaine improved to 2-2 overall, while Miami fell to 1-3.
The five first-period goals represented the first time UMaine had scored five goals in a period since Oct. 22, 2010 against North Dakota.
The Black Bears looked like a completely different team than the one that was beaten by the RedHawks 7-5 on Friday night.
“We really wanted to take the game to them [right away]. We felt they took the game to us on Friday night,” Holway said.
“Obviously, when you lose a game like we did last night after coming out flat, it was a point of emphasis to come out hard and do the little things right,” said sophomore left wing Mitch Fossier, who had a goal and an assist. “We didn’t finish our hits early on Friday night. We were driving by them and not doing the little things.
“We came out with the determination we need to have all the time,” Fossier added.
“The story of the game was how we responded [after Friday night],” UMaine head coach Red Gendron said. “It was terrific. That’s what mattered tonight.”
Fossier said Holway is a key player.
“He’s one of our top defensemen. You saw him make some unbelievable plays tonight and was also solid back there defensively,” he said.
In addition to Holway and Fossier, freshmen Eduards Tralmaks and Brady Keeper also scored first-period goals as did Patrick Shea. Tim Doherty added a second-period goal.
Defenseman Keeper had two assists to go with his goal with Tralmaks having one to accompany his score. Freshman Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves, including 13 of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety, to nab his first college win.
Miami junior defenseman Grant Hutton had a pair of goals for the second straight night and he also assisted on Phil Knies’ goal. Knies had an assist to go with his goal. All three goals came on the power play.
Miami had a 7-for-10 showing with the man advantage over the weekend.
Tralmaks opened the scoring just 1:01 into the game when he sprinted around defenseman Chaz Switzer down the right wing, sliced across the low slot and tucked the puck behind Larkin.
“I didn’t know if I had enough enough speed to go around him so I kind of faked like I was going to cut to the middle and [Switzer] kind of stopped a little so I knew I could get around him. Then I put [the shot] top shelf,” Tralmaks said.
“To get that one early got the crowd into it and we built off that energy,” Fossier said.
Switzer was assessed a slashing penalty on the play and a cross-checking penalty 22 seconds later on Grant Frederic gave the Black Bears a two-man advantage and Holway capitalized with a screened wrist shot from the high slot off a Fossier pass that beat Larkin to the blocker side.
Keeper scored his first collegiate goal at the 10:38 mark thanks to Tralmaks, who stole a weak clearing pass and fed him in the left circle for a one-timer from the top of the left circle.
Holway set up Shea’s goal by faking a shot at the right point and sliding it to him in the low slot. Shea redirected the puck past Larkin.
“I saw some [open] white jerseys. There were a lot of red jerseys coming out at me,” Holway said, adding that it was “great” to be back in the lineup.
Larkin was lifted and replaced by freshman Grant Valentine, and Fossier scored a five-on-three goal with a one-timer from an acute angle to the left of Valentine. Keeper and Holway assisted.
Knies got one back for Miami with five seconds left in the second period when Hutton’s shot deflected over to him and he swept it past Swayman.
Larkin returned in the second period and Doherty made it 6-1 midway through the period by taking an Emil Westerlund pass and calmly pulling the puck around Larkin before sliding it into the open net, but Hutton answered with a one-timer one second after a full two-minute five-on-three had ended with one skater coming back out of the penalty box.
Danny Perez had been assessed a five-minute major for grasping the facemask, and Holway was called for slashing 2:48 later. UMaine did an exceptional job on the penalty kill, allowing just the one goal during the sequence.
UMaine efficiently protected the lead in the third period until Hutton scored with 3:13 remaining, while the RedHawks were on a six-on-four because they were on the power play and Larkin had been pulled in favor of the extra attacker.
Miami outshot UMaine 30-26.
UMaine will host Minnesota-Duluth, the national runners-up last year, 7 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.