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 second-period goals by sophomore left wing Sully Scholle, sophomore defenseman Frank Djurasevic and graduate student center Lynden Breen and went on to post a 7-1 win over seventh-seed UMass Lowell at a sold-out Alfond Arena on Saturday night.
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 of the Hockey East quarterfinal.
Graduate student defenseman Nick Anderson scored for UMass Lowell in the third period to make it 4-1 at the time.
UMaine is now 22-7-6 and will play in the semifinals at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday. The semifinals are at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. UConn and Boston University will also be playing as well as the Boston College-Northeastern winner.
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 the 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 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 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 and had no chance on Djurasevic’s seventh of the season.
Scholle made the pass to Djurasevic and Taylor 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 inside the far post for his sixth of the season.
