ORONO, Maine — What appeared to be an easy Saturday afternoon for the University of Maine’s fifth-ranked hockey team against third-year Division I program Stonehill College turned into a dogfight.
After UMaine built a 2-0 lead in a dominant first period on goals by senior left wing Taylor Makar and senior center Harrison Scott, the Skyhawks stunned the Black Bears and silenced the crowd by receiving second-period goals by Leo Chambers and Brady Hunter to tie it.
But the Black Bears received early third-period goals from unlikely sources — junior defenseman Grayson Arnott and junior right wing Nick Niemo — and added a 5-on-3 power play goal by sophomore right wing Josh Nadeau to earn a 5-2 victory.
UMaine is now 11-2-2 and extended its unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1). Stonehill fell to 6-13. UMaine outshot Stonehill 46-16.
The teams will conclude their series on Sunday at 3.
Arnott and Niemo each scored their first goals of the season.
Arnott broke the tie 1:39 into the third period when he planted himself at the net front and deflected Nolan Renwick’s wrist shot from the high slot over the shoulder of Stonehill goalie Connor Androlewicz, who spent four years as a backup at UMaine.
“I saw [Renwick] rolling like a defenseman so I thought I’d go fill his spot in front. It worked out. It was a great shot by him and I was fortunate to get a stick on it,” Arnott said.
Niemo was making his season debut after being a healthy scratch for the first 14 games and he scored 3:19 later when a Skyhawk turned the puck over in the high slot and he snapped a 25-foot wrist shot past Androlewicz’s blocker.
“It was awesome to suit up for the first time this year. It was lots of fun,” Niemo said. “I was fortunate to find the puck in the slot there. I was in on the forecheck and [Oskar Komarov] was in hard on their guy and the puck hit [Komarov’s] skate. It popped out, I just grabbed it, took it to the middle and I just ripped it.”
The Skyhawks took simultaneous penalties a few minutes later and Nadeau capitalized by walking to the middle of the slot and wristing a screened 20-foot shot past Androlewicz.
Nadeau finished with a three-point game, including two assists to go with his goal.
Makar opened the scoring 7:49 into the game by sliding a Nadeau rebound past Androlewicz.
It was Makar’s sixth goal of the season.
Scott notched his team-leading 10th goal of the year with a power play wrister from the middle of the slot.
UMaine outshot Stonehill 18-2 in the first period.
Stonehill freshman center Chambers scored his first collegiate goal at the 1:40 mark of the second period to make it 2-1.
Frank Ireland fired a shot from the left circle into the body of UMaine goalie Albin Boija.
The puck dropped to the ice and Chambers swatted it home.
That goal changed the momentum and the energized Skyhawks began going toe-to-toe with the Black Bears and generating some quality chances.
Boija was forced to make a blocker save on Ireland’s shorthanded breakaway.
The Skyhawks also did an impressive job limiting UMaine’s high-percentage scoring chances.
The Skyhawks went on the power play late in the period and sophomore left wing Hunter wristed a Devlin O’Brien rebound into a half-empty net from the right faceoff circle.
“We came out really hard [in the first period]. We got outworked in the second and the third was pretty good until the last three or four minutes,” said UMaine coach Ben Barr. “We lost our humility in the second period. We didn’t want to do all the little things that helps you have the puck on your tape and play in the offensive zone. We turned pucks over.”
“We’ve done this a lot this year,” said Stonehill coach David Berard, referring to the team’s third-period woes. “If it was a 40-minute hockey game, we probably would have won three or four more games.”
Stonehill has the equivalent of nine scholarship players, nine fewer than the maximum of 18 allowed under NCAA guidelines, and leading scorer Anthony Galante (9 goals, 7 assists) was left home for disciplinary reasons.