ORONO, Maine — University of Maine junior left wing Thomas Freel entered Sunday afternoon’s hockey game against Stonehill College with seven goals on the season, all of them coming on the power play.
He scored his first even-strength goal with 43 seconds left in the first period to break a 1-1 tie and the Black Bears went on to earn a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the gritty Skyhawks at Alfond Arena.
The fifth-ranked Black Bears will take a 12-2-2 record and a seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) into the Christmas break.
It completed a weekend sweep as the Black Bears beat Stonehill 5-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Stonehill is in its third year as a Division I program and has the equivalent of nine scholarships, which is nine fewer than is allowed under NCAA guidelines.
The Skyhawks fell to 6-14.
UMaine’s Thomas Pichette and Stonehill’s Teddy Lagerback swapped early first-period goals before Freel gave UMaine the lead for good.
Brandon Chabrier made a pass to Ross Mitton, who was at the top of the left faceoff circle. Mitton was sandwiched by a pair of Skyhawks, which resulted in the puck squirting across to the center of the ice.
“I read the bounce and was able to be the first one to the puck. I put it on net and hoped for the best and it went in,” said Freel, who flipped a backhander past Stonehill goalie Connor Androlwewicz’s glove hand.
Josh Nadeau’s second-period power-play tally gave UMaine a 3-1 lead after two periods and Frank Djurasevic made it 4-1 in the third period before Frank Ireland closed out the scoring for Stonehill with 6:37 remaining.
The Skyhawks pulled Androlewicz for the extra attacker with 2:21 left but couldn’t put another puck past UMaine freshman goalie Patriks Berzins, who finished with 14 saves in his first career start.
Graduate student Androlewicz, who appeared in eight games during four seasons at UMaine before transferring after last season, wound up with 30 saves.
“It was another hard-fought game,” UMaine coach Ben Barr said. “We did some really good things but we also had some rough individual breakdowns and mental mistakes and they made us pay when we did. But we’ll take it and move on.”
Barr said Stonehill “puts a lot of pressure on you. [Coach David Berard] has done a phenomenal job. They are so structured. They make you go through them. They play really hard.”
Freshman center Pichette staked UMaine to a 1-0 lead with his first collegiate goal just 2:37 into the game.
Pichette was parked in the low slot to the left of Androlewicz and deflected Jack Dalton’s wrist shot into the short side corner.
It was the second straight game UMaine received a goal from its fourth line as Nick Niemo, the right wing on the line with Pichette and sophomore Anthony Calafiore, had scored in Saturday’s victory.
Freshman Oskar Komarov was the fourth line center on Saturday but missed Sunday’s game with a minor injury, according to Barr, and was replaced by Pichette.
“That line gave us a lot of juice,” Barr said.
Junior left wing Lagerback equalized just 2:22 later with a one-timer from the left wing boards that found its way into the short side corner after fluttering through a maze of players and deflecting off the body of a Black Bear.
Sophomore right wing Nadeau scored his fifth goal of the season with a one-timer off a Sully Scholle feed as he was alone in the middle of the slot and beat Androlewicz to the glove side.
Nadeau, last year’s second-leading scorer, has now scored a goal in three straight games.
“He had a rough start but he’s getting his feel back a little bit which is good. Guys who get points help you,” Barr said.
Scholle was again the provider on Djurasevic’s goal with a perfect pass that enabled Djurasevic to blast a one-timer past Androlewicz.
“It was a nice pass. I was alone and had a little room upstairs,” said sophomore defenseman Djurasevic, whose goal was his fourth of the season.
Barr said Scholle was “outstanding.”
“He was our best player in the third period,” Barr said.
The Skyhawks made things interesting when junior left wing Ireland converted a two-on-one off a pass from Jake Cady but the Bears hung on for the win. It was his second goal of the season.
Stonehill coach Bedard said he was “really proud and happy” with his team’s effort.
“We did some different things to try to take away what they were looking to do, where they exposed us yesterday,” Berard said. “Our guys adjusted really well. We made a couple of mistakes and that was the difference in the game.”
UMaine won’t play again until it faces Bentley on Sunday, Dec. 29, at 4 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
Stonehill visits fellow Division I independent Long Island University next Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.