ORONO, Maine — A dramatic two-goal swing early in the first period proved to be pivotal as the University of New Hampshire completed a weekend Hockey East sweep of the University of Maine at Alfond Arena on Saturday night with a 3-2 victory.
UNH had won Friday’s game 1-0.
With UMaine leading 1-0, a loose puck squirted out from behind the net to the middle of the low slot onto the stick of UMaine leading scorer Justin Poirier, who was all alone.
Poirier tried to go short side with a wrist shot, but UNH goalie Kyle Chauvette made a terrific glove save.
Just a few minutes later, UNH’s Nick Ring capitalized on an ill-advised pass by UMaine freshman defenseman Loic Usereau to tie it and the Wildcats received second-period goals 2:41 apart from J.P. Turner and Josh Player to break the 1-1 tie.
UMaine senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt cut the lead to 3-2 early in the third period and the Black Bears stormed the UNH net seeking an equalizer. But the Wildcats held on and survived a wild goalmouth scramble with 5.5 seconds left.
It was the first UNH sweep at Alfond Arena since February 2008.
UNH’s win was its fourth in a row and the Wildcats improved to 9-7 overall and 5-4 in Hockey East while UMaine fell to 8-7-1 and 5-5.
UNH has now won six of its last seven road games.
UMaine has now lost four of its last five and is 6-4 at Alfond Arena, which matches the number of home losses over the previous two seasons combined.
The Black Bears were 15-2-3 at Alfond Arena and 13-2-2 in the 2023-24 campaign.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr made some significant lineup changes, benching junior defenseman and assistant captain Frank Djurasevic and centers Jaden Lipinski and Oskar Komarov.
UMaine junior right wing Josh Nadeau staked the Black Bears to a 1-0 lead just 2:47 into the game with a tap-in off a perfect cross-ice pass from Holt.
Ring tied it by intercepting a Lois Usereau pass and firing a wrist shot over Albin Boija’s glove.
Turner gave UNH the lead for good with one-timer to the far side past the blocker of Boija off a Jacob Newcombe pass. He was positioned on the inner half of the right circle.
Player extended the lead with a wrist shot from the right circle that hit the goal stick of Boija and flipped up over his glove.
Boija was replaced by Mathis Rousseau after the second period.
Holt scored with a wrist shot from the point but the Black Bears couldn’t tie it up.
UMaine outshot UNH 30-17.
