ORONO, Maine — University of Maine senior left wing and University of Massachusetts transfer Taylor Makar had a memorable Friday night.
With parents Gary and Laura on hand from Calgary for senior weekend, Makar notched his first career hat trick as the fifth-ranked Black Bears beat Vermont 4-1 for their 20th win of the season.
It is the first time UMaine has had back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2005-06 and 2006-07.
UMaine is now 20-6-5 overall and 12-4-5 in Hockey East while UVM fell to 11-17-3 and 6-13-2.
UMaine was 23-12-2 last season.
It was Vermont’s fourth consecutive loss.
The teams will conclude their series on Saturday night at 7 p.m. It will be senior night.
“It’s really special. All the [seniors’] parents are in town. My parents are here. It’s just great to get the win,” said Makar, who now has 16 goals on the season.
His previous single-season high at UMass was 10.
His first two goals came on the power play, which were his first two power play goals of the season.
And his even-strength goal in the third period was crucial because it came just 2:06 after Isak Walther’s power play goal had sliced UMaine’s lead to 2-1.
Junior defenseman Grayson Arnott, who moved up to left wing to replace the injured Aidan Carney in the third period, added an important insurance goal 1:31 later.
Makar opened the scoring with 46 seconds left in the first period.
Nolan Renwick made a pass to Frank Djurasevic, who was open in the middle of the high slot.
He faked a shot and slid a perfect pass down to Makar, who was behind and to the right of Vermont goalie Axel Mangbo.
Makar simply had to deposit the puck into the empty net.
“It was a great play by Frank and a great retrieval on the power play [by Renwick],” said Makar.
In the second period, both teams had five-on-three power plays and it was the Black Bears who capitalized on their chance.
UMaine was able to kill off Vermont’s 1:21 five-on-three with the Catamounts hitting the crossbar on its best opportunity of the power play.
UMaine had a 1:57 two-man advantage and Makar scored on the deflection of a Djurasevic shot.
“It ended up hitting my shin pads and bouncing in,” said Makar.
Walther scored with 10:56 to go when he deflected Simon Jellius’ shot from the right point past UMaine goalie Albin Boija.
But Makar restored the two-goal advantage off a well-designed play off a three-on-two.
Charlie Russell had the puck in the neutral zone and flipped a soft pass ahead onto the stick of Brandon Chabrier, who ripped a low shot labeled for the far corner.
Mangbo made a right pad save but the rebound landed on the stick of Makar and he snapped it home.
“It was a great play by [Renwick] to get it out of our zone [to Russell],” said Makar. “It was an unreal play by [Chabrier]. It was a pass-off-pad and an easy put-in.”
“That was a really important goal,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “It was a simple play. Win a battle in the corner, chip a puck to a guy in the neutral zone, [Chabrier] had a great shot there, put it on the pad and drive the net.”
Barr called it the simplest hockey.
“You learn that when you’re 10 years old. If you’re really good at the simple things, usually good things will happen,” added Barr.
Arnott extended the lead with a net-front drive.
Nicholas Niemo spun off a check behind the net and fed a pass to Oskar Komarov, whose one-timer was saved by Mangbo.
But the rebound spilled into the crease and Arnott jammed it home for his second of the season.
Boija finished with 26 saves while Mangbo wound up with 34.
Barr was satisfied with his team’s performance.
“There were glimpses of us playing better hockey,” said Barr. “We started really well. We’re still making decisions that aren’t great but it’s better than it has been.”
Barr said Makar has been playing great.
“He plays the game the right way,” said Barr.
