Junior defenseman Frank Djurasevic scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season and freshman goalie Mathis Rousseau made 23 saves as the University of Maine’s hockey team extended its unbeaten streak to five games.
The Black Bears earned a 3-2 victory over Northeastern in front of 985 fans at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. on Saturday night.
That completed a weekend sweep as UMaine had beaten the Huskies 4-0 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Friday night.
The games were played in Portland and Lowell because Northeastern’s Matthews Arena is being demolished.
UMaine improved to 18-12-3 overall and 12-10-1 in Hockey East while Northeastern fell to 15-17-1 and 10-13-0, respectively.
UMaine is 4-0-1 in its last five and has won four straight.
Sophomore left wing Joe Connor staked NU to a 1-0 lead in the first period on the Huskies’ only shot on goal in the period compared to UMaine’s 12. He scored with a one-timer off a Tyler Fukakusa feed for his 12th goal of the season.
Djurasevic tied 1:31 into the second period and gave UMaine the lead for good 2:53 later on a delayed penalty.
Junior center Sully Scholle scored a flukey goal later in the period to extend the lead to 3-1.
Freshman right wing Giacomo Martino pulled the Huskies within one with 12:42 remaining in regulation off a Connor pass for his 11th but Rousseau made 13 third-period saves to earn the win.
Junior Brown University transfer Lawton Zacher finished with 29 saves for Northeastern.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr said the team played good, simple hockey through two periods.
“But Northeastern had us back on our heels in the third period,” Barr said.
The coach credited the Black Bears goalie for his play Saturday night.
“Rousseau made some great saves. He played really well,” said Barr. “We got the job done. We hung on. But it wasn’t pretty at the end.”
Djurasevic tied it with a one-timer from the top of the right circle. Will Gerrior pushed the puck back to him after he won a puck battle behind the net. Oskar Komarov had an assist, also.
He scored with another one-timer, this time from the top of the left circle, off a pass from Scholle. Josh Nadeau also assisted.
UMaine had an extra attacker on the ice since the Huskies were going to be penalized.
“Frank played really well tonight,” said Barr. “He got the puck to the net. He kept things simple.”
Scholle was credited with his seventh of the campaign after Loic Usereau wristed the puck to the net from the left point.
It deflected on its way to the net into the low slot and onto the stick of NU freshman Matthew Maltais.
It was unassisted.
Maltais tried to carry it out of danger across the low slot but Scholle swatted at it and he hit Maltais’ stick and the puck squirted off his stick and past Zacher.
“Any time you can get two wins, you feel good about it,” said Barr. “We played five real solid periods. The third period tonight wasn’t great but give Northeastern credit.”
Martino’s goal was set up by Connor after Jack Henry made a long stretch pass up the ice.
NU standout defenseman and captain Vinny Borgesi was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for cross-checking late in the first period.
Barr said playing in an empty arena felt like a game during the COVID pandemic when fans weren’t allowed to attend.
“We’re fortunate. We don’t play in environments like that very often and we have the best environment at our place,” said Barr with a reference to UMaine’s Alfond Arena. “But the guys brought their own energy and managed it well.”
UMaine will conclude the regular season with a single game at Vermont on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Huskies will play at Boston College on Saturday night in its final regular season contest.
