Junior center Chase Pearson continued his fast start to the season and sophomore goalie Jeremy Swayman turned in his third consecutive game with at least 39 saves as the University of Maine salvaged a split of its Hockey East series at Boston University with a 3-1 victory on Saturday night at Agganis Arena in Boston.
Pearson, a co-captain, figured in all three goals with two goals and an assist and Swayman made 40 saves for UMaine (4-5-1, 2-3-1 HE).
Boston University (3-5-1, 3-3-1 HE) had beaten UMaine 3-2 on Friday night.
On Saturday night, junior left wing Mitch Fossier, who led the team with 12 goals last season, scored his first goal of 2018-2019 in the first period on the power play and set up Pearson’s second-period game-winner.
Pearson added an empty-net goal with 49 seconds remaining to give him seven on the season and five in his last five games. He has already matched last season’s goal total.
Bobo Carpenter scored for BU and Jake Oettinger finished with 22 saves.
“To earn a win at BU is a great confidence builder,” UMaine head coach Red Gendron said. “We played really well.”
Fossier opened the scoring at the 10:58 mark as he converted on UMaine’s only power play.
Fossier made a pass from the left wing side to Pearson in the high slot and Pearson one-timed a wrister that was stopped by Oettinger. But Fossier had skated to the net front and tucked the rebound into the short side from just outside the crease.
It snapped an 11-game goalless drought dating back to last season.
“As a coaching staff, we don’t put pressure on them. But you want your goal scorers to get the monkey off their backs [by scoring]. It lifts a burden off them,” Gendron said.
Pearson made it 2-0 in a 4-on-4 situation 3:11 into the second period.
Alexis Binner passed it to Fossier, who burst down the right wing into the BU zone.
“We defended real well in our zone and stole the puck,” Gendron said. “It was a foot race.”
Fossier got past a Terrier and then evaded an official before sliding a backhanded pass to Pearson.
Carpenter scored 6:39 later when Logan Cockerill pushed the puck out front from behind the net and he tucked it home from 10 feet out.
But Pearson iced the game by flipping the puck into the empty net from his own zone.
Swayman made 15 of his 40 saves in the third period as UMaine had to kill off BU’s fourth and fifth power plays of the evening. BU outshot UMaine 15-3 in the period.
Swayman, a native of Anchorage, Alaska, who was a fourth-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins, has stopped 123 of 128 shots faced over the last three games for a .961 save percentage.
“Jeremy has been playing well for a while,” Gendron said. “The bottom line is he is a good player.
“We got some great contributions from our defensemen although it didn’t necessarily show up on the scoreboard,” he added.
Senior defenseman and co-captain Rob Michel also picked up an assist as did sophomore defenseman Binner.
On Friday night, David Farrance’s screened shot from the point on the power play with just 1:11 remaining gave the Terriers the victory.
Sam Becker had been assessed a tripping penalty only 37 seconds earlier on a BU breakaway.
Patrick Harper and Jake Wise assisted on the game-winner.
All three Terrier goals came on the power play.
Eduards Tralmaks had staked UMaine to a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season at the 14:32 mark of the first period.
Carpenter and Joel Farabee scored just 1:41 apart late in the second period to give the Terriers a 2-1 lead.
Tim Doherty tied it on the power play with 5:51 left in the third period with Pearson and Brady Keeper picking up assists.
Defenseman Dante Fabbro and Chad Krys each picked up two assists for BU, which went 3-for-6 with the man advantage against the team ranked seventh in the country on the penalty kill entering the series.
Oettinger made 36 saves for BU and Swayman finished with 39.
UMaine will host nationally-ranked Quinnipiac (9-2) of the ECAC on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 and 7:30, respectively.