ORONO, Maine — It has been a challenging year for University of Maine sophomore right wing Josh Nadeau.
Coming off a freshman season in which he was the team’s second-leading scorer behind younger brother Bradly with 18 goals and 27 assists in 37 games, points have been much harder to come by this season.
But Nadeau got going in dramatic fashion last Saturday night, posting a goal and three assists over the final 11:53 to lead the UMaine men’s hockey team to a come-from-behind 5-2 victory over arch-rival New Hampshire.
It is just the second time in his career he has had a four-point game with the other also coming against UNH in a 5-0 quarterfinal round playoff win.
Nadeau said his four-point outburst is “just what I needed.”
“Everyone knows I haven’t had a season like last year. Hopefully, this brings me back to how I finished off last year. I’ll try to build on it,” said Nadeau, who now has seven goals and 14 assists in 28 games.
He said he just tried to “keep things simple and work hard” in the third period.
“When you’re down, you just have to keep working and good things will happen,” said Nadeau.
Earlier in the period, he absorbed a vicious hit from UNH’s Nikolai Jenson that required five stitches in his chin after the game. Jenson was assessed a two-minute minor for an indirect contact-to-the head minor penalty instead of a possible five-minute major.
Hockey East reviewed the hit and obviously disagreed with the referees’ decision by suspending Jenson for one game.
“Josh played with a little bit of fire,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “It has been hit and miss at times this year. He took that hit, gets right back up and gets four points.
“That’s a pretty good response,” Barr added.
“Josh had a great weekend, all-around,” said UMaine senior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale. “He was getting into the dirty areas [in front of the net] and holding onto pucks.
“It was great to see,” added Breazeale.
Junior left wing Thomas Freel was Nadeau’s linemate along with senior center Harrison Scott on Saturday night and Freel said Nadeau has been “playing great hockey for a while.”
“It was just a matter of time before those points started coming for him and he really exploded in the third period. That was awesome to see,” said Freel.
Nadeau said you have to be resilient when the points aren’t coming.
“It’s all mental. You just have to stay strong and keep pushing. It’s going to come,” said Nadeau.
He said the most difficult aspect of the season is getting used to playing with other guys on a line. He was on a line with his brother last year and in junior hockey.
He has had several different linemates.
“I’ve been trying to find chemistry with someone and the last game worked well with Scott and Freel and, hopefully, it will keep going that way the next few games,” said Nadeau.
The Black Bears now turn their attention to a University of Connecticut team that came to Orono on Jan. 17-18 and posted a 4-2 win and 2-2 overtime tie.
They will play one game on Friday night at 7:30 in Storrs, Conn.
Fourth-ranked UMaine, 19-5-5 overall and 11-3-5 in Hockey East, has gone 4-0-2 since that series while 11th-ranked UConn (16-10-3, 8-8-3) has gone 4-2-1.
“They’re really good. They’re very aggressive. They took it to us pretty good on Friday night. We were better Saturday but we only got a tie,” said Barr. “Playing on the road, we’re going to have to be way better than we were a few weeks ago.”
UMaine will be without graduate student right wing Ross Mitton who sustained a knee injury on Saturday night.
“It’s a day-to-day thing. Hopefully, I’ll be back in a couple of weeks,” said Mitton.
But graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen could return to the lineup for the first time since Nov. 30 after suffering a broken fibula.
UMaine continues to be led in scoring by Scott (16 goals, 15 assists), Taylor Makar (13 & 11), Nadeau, Frank Djurasevic (6 & 15) and Charlie Russell (6 & 15). Goalie Albin Boija has an 18-5-5 record with a 1.60 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.
UConn has been paced by Joey Muldowney (19 & 13), who had all four goals in the win over UMaine. He is followed by Hudson Schandor (8 & 22), Jake Richard (8 & 18) and Ryan Tattle (15 & 7). Tyler Muszelik (10-5-2, 2.36, .913) and Callum Tung (5-3-1, 2.20, .929) each played against UMaine.
