ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s men’s hockey team will be returning to the Hockey East semifinals for the second consecutive season.
The second-seeded Black Bears, ranked fourth in one national poll and fifth in the other, received goals from seven players including second-period goals by sophomore left wing Sully Scholle, sophomore defenseman Frank Djurasevic and graduate student center Lynden Breen en route to a 7-1 Hockey East quarterfinal win over seventh-seed UMass Lowell at a sold-out Alfond Arena on Saturday night.
The seven goals is the most scored by the Black Bears in a game this season.
“The strength of our team is our depth and I thought everyone showed up tonight,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr.
Scholle said the team played a “great game” Saturday night against the River Hawks.
“We played very well offensively and defensively. The boys just buzzed out there,” said Scholle.
Junior left wing Thomas Freel, senior center Harrison Scott, sophomore right wing Josh Nadeau and graduate student right wing Ross Mitton all scored in the third period for the Black Bears.
Graduate student defenseman Nick Anderson scored for UMass Lowell in the third period to make it 4-1 at the time.
UMaine outshot UMass Lowell 42-28.
Black Bear sophomore goalie Albin Boija finished with 27 saves and UMass Lowell graduate student Henry Welsch wound up with 35.
UMaine is now 22-7-6 and will play in the semifinals at TD Garden in Boston at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. UMaine will take on ninth seed Northeastern, who shocked top seed Boston College 3-1, and fourth seed UConn will take on third seed Boston University. The Boston University-UConn game will be at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Friday’s final will be at 7:30 p.m..
UMass Lowell wound up 16-16-4.
The River Hawks had a golden opportunity to break a scoreless tie when UMaine junior defenseman Brandon Chabrier was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for butt-ending with 27 seconds left in the first period.
UMaine killed off those final 27 seconds and over a minute into the second period before UMass Lowell was called for interference.
That put the two teams playing four-on-four and, 1:19 later, UMass Lowell’s Mirko Buttazzoni received a high-sticking minor.
Just 1:31 after that, River Hawk leading goal scorer Scout Truman (10 goals) was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head and Scholle opened the scoring on the power play at the 7:13 mark.
Scholle worked a give-and-go with Djurasevic, took a few strides and snapped a wrist shot from the middle of the slot past Welsch’s blocker for his third goal of the season.
Josh Nadeau also assisted on the goal.
Djurasevic made it 2-0 just five seconds after the power play ended, as he took a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that sailed into the upper short corner past Welsch’s blocker.
Welsch was screened by Makar and had no chance on Djurasevic’s seventh of the season.
“We’ve been working really hard in practice with our [power play] unit, just trying to get movement up top and create lanes,” said Djurasevic. “And Taylor is great at the net front.”
Scholle made the pass to Djurasevic and Makar also assisted.
Breen expanded the lead with 4:29 left in the period when he was set up nicely in front by Charlie Russell.
Russell was behind the net, and Breen one-timed his pass from the top of the crease in off the far post for his sixth goal — and first since he returned from a broken leg six games ago.
Freel expanded the lead to 4-0 less than two minutes into the third period when he one-timed a David Breazeale pass into the net off a two-on-one for his 11th of the season.
Anderson answered 6:17 later by firing home a loose puck for his second of the season. But Scott found the upper short side corner off a two-on-one for his 17th; Nadeau scored his ninth off a Bodie Nobes rebound and Mitton notched his fourth with a wrister from the right faceoff circle.
It was Mitton’s first game back after suffering a leg injury five games ago.
“We played a pretty complete game,” said Barr. “It got a little dicey there with the five-minute major but we obviously got through it. We got fortunate that they took [two minor penalties] and then took a five so it kind of changed things.
“The kill gave us a lot of juice and led to good things happening for us,” Barr added.
It was the first time UMaine had seven different goal scorers since a 7-2 victory over Boston College on Jan. 16, 2019. Thirteen Black Bears registered at least a goal or an assist.
Barr lauded the effort turned in by the five remaining defensemen after Chabrier was tossed from the game.
“They were great. It’s a long time to go with five D and they did a really good job,” Barr said.
Breen said the Black Bears “have a big emphasis on every guy going” and things can go awry if a player or two is having an off night.
“But we made quick adjustments, learned from our mistakes and kept the pressure on them all night, which was great,” said Breen. He felt it was a total team effort.
“We weren’t good enough today and the other team was,” said UMass Lowell coach Norm Bazin, who lost sophomore center Jak Vaarwerk to a shoulder injury early in the first period and was down to 10 forwards after Truman was ejected from the game.