The University of Maine men’s hockey team climbed back into third place in Hockey East Saturday night. They snapped a three-game road losing streak by edging the University of Vermont 3-2 behind graduate student left wing Ben Poisson’s power play goal with 9:20 remaining.
UMaine improved to 20-10-2 overall and 12-9-1 in Hockey East. It is the first 20-win season since the last UMaine NCAA Tournament team in 2011-12 won 23 games.
UMaine has a two-point lead over both UMass and Providence for third place with two games to go for each. UMass travels to UMaine for a two-game set next weekend.
Sophomore winger Nicholas Niemo and junior center Harrison Scott, both transfers from Bentley University, scored the other UMaine goals, while Joel Maatta and Timofei Spitserov scored for the Catamounts.
Spitserov’s seventh goal of the season was a power play tally and Scott’s 13th was shorthanded.
Niemo’s goal was his second and Maatta’s was his fourth.
UMaine freshman goalie Albin Boija finished with 15 saves while UVM senior Gabe Carriere wound up with 22 stops.
Poisson’s fifth goal of the season was set up by a Lynden Breen feed from along the boards.
“It was mostly (Breen),” Poisson said. “We had talked about that play. I created a little space and he fired it from the wall and put it in a perfect spot. I didn’t have to do much.
“It tipped up off my stick and went by the goalie,” Poisson said. “I was surrounded by a bunch of their guys and saw the red light go on.”
Assistant captain Poisson said it was a “big win for us. It felt good. We’re more on track.”
UMaine had lost five of its last six games including Friday night’s 2-1 loss to the Catamounts.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr’s team outshot UVM 14-3 in the third period.
“We didn’t play our best. Breen and Poisson showed good leadership,” Barr said. “We did a lot of penalty-killing. They had a five-on-three (for a minute) in the second period. We took five penalties in that period. That’s not ideal.”
But his team won the special teams battle 2-1 with the power play goal and the shorthanded goal.
“The penalty killers did a good job and the power play did a good job,” Barr said.
”Our game wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination. We’re still trying to find some efficiency in our game. It has been a struggle. We had good third periods both nights. I don’t know why we can’t find that at the puck drop (to start the game),” he said.
UMaine will host UMass on Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m.