The University of Maine hockey team spotted New Hampshire the game’s opening goal but received second-period goals 2:30 apart from Lynden Breen and Owen Fowler and went on to post a 3-1 victory over the arch-rival Wildcats at a sold-out Whittemore Center in Durham, N.H. Friday night.
Sophomore goalie Albin Boija made two great saves off UNH leading scorer Ryan Conmy late in the third period to preserve a 2-1 lead before sophomore defenseman Frank Djurasevic iced the win with a shorthanded empty-net goal with five seconds left.
The victory ended UMaine’s six-game winless streak (0-3-3) at the Whittemore Center.
It is the third negative streak the Black Bears have snapped this season as they won at Northeastern to end a 16-game winless drought (0-14-2) at Matthews Arena and last weekend’s win and tie against Boston University ended BU’s string of six straight wins against UMaine.
UMaine, ranked fifth in one national poll and sixth in the other, improved to 8-2-2 overall and 5-2-2 in Hockey East.
UNH is now 4-4-2 and 1-3-2, respectively.
Liam Devlin staked UNH to a 1-0 lead in the second period with a five-on-three power play goal.
He was positioned on one knee at the far post and swept in a perfectly-placed cross-crease pass from Conmy.
It was Devlin’s second goal of the season.
Graduate student center and co-captain Breen tied it for UMaine at the 10:36 mark.
“(Owen) Fowler made a great block after I lost a faceoff and we came down on a two-on-one. Charlie Russell gave me a pass and I shot it to the far post,” said Breen, who shot from just inside the left faceoff circle parallel to the faceoff dot.
His shot beat UNH goalie Jared Whale to the glove side.
It was his second goal of the season.
On their next shift, Breen intercepted a UNH clear-out just inside the blue line and fed it to junior left wing Fowler.
Fowler drove to the net just a few feet from the extended goal line and flipped the puck across the crease where it hit UNH defenseman Luke Reid and deflected into the net.
It was his fourth goal of the season.
“When you take the puck to the net like that on the inside, good things happen,” said Breen
UMaine protected the lead impressively in the third period and Boija came up big.
He first made a good glove save off Devlin’s shot from a Conmy feed and then he saved a Conmy one-timer off a Devlin pass before robbing Conmy again after he was able to maneuver around UMaine defenseman David Breazeale.
Djurasevic put the game away with his first goal as a Black Bear after transferring from Merrimack College.
Boija finished with 25 saves and Whale had 31.
Breen said it was an important win to prove “we can win on the road” and aren’t just a good home team.
“It was a gritty road win in a tough place to win,” said UMaine coach Ben Barr. “It wasn’t perfect. We had some turnovers. But the positives outweighed the negatives.”
Barr said the team received a lift from the fourth line of Oskar Komarov, Anthony Calafiore and Thomas Pichette as it was able to provide energy and sustain forechecks.
UMaine All-Hockey East third teamer Josh Nadeau missed the game with a facial/head injury.
UMaine will travel to Troy, New York, for Saturday and Sunday afternoon non-conference games at 3 p.m. against Barr’s alma mater, RPI.