What a difference a night makes!
After unleashing a 54-shot barrage in a comfortable 6-2 win the night before, the University of Maine’s hockey team was impressively shut down by University of Massachusetts junior goalie Jackson Irving on Friday night.
The UMass Minutemen scored a pair of power play goals and went on to triumph 4-0 over the Black Bears at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Sixth-ranked UMaine had its four-game winning streak snapped and fell to 6-3-1 on the season, 3-1 in Hockey East.
UMaine had scored 22 goals during its winning streak.
UMass, ranked 12th in one national poll and 13th in the other, improved to 7-4 and 1-2, respectively.
Irving, who made his first start of the season and seventh of his career on Thursday night, turned in a terrific 38-save performance and was the story of the game as he robbed the Black Bears time and time again. His teammates did an effective job clearing the net front and limiting any second-chance opportunities.
Junior defenseman Francesco Dell’Elce staked the Minutemen to a 1-0 lead on the power play at the 10:29 mark of the first period. Sophomore left wing Daniel Jencko scored on a five-on-three power play at the 9:15 mark of the second period. Senior defenseman Lucas Olvestad tallied an even-strength goal 5:35 later.
Jencko added an empty-net goal with 2:58 remaining.
UMass had entered the series with the nation’s sixth-best power play percentage at 31 percent but were 0-for-4 on Thursday night.
It was a different story for game two of the series, however.
Dell’Elce notched his third goal of the season off a faceoff play.
Jack Galanek won a faceoff in the circle to the right of Albin Boija and Vaclav Nestrasil slid the puck over to the right faceoff circle where Dell’Elce sizzled a one-timer past Boija.
UMaine had started the first period the way it had left off on Thursday night, dominating playing and generating the first seven shots on goal only to have Irving thwart them. He made an exceptional left pad save on a Max Scott one-timer from the right circle.
In the second period, Dell’Elce went from goal scorer to distributor as he fed a nice cross-ice pass from the low slot to Jencko, whose one-timer from the bottom of the right circle beat Boija to the near side for his second of the season. .
Jack Musa also assisted on the goal.
Olvestad notched his first of the campaign by following up a rush by Nick VanTassell and snapping a wrist shot past Boija from the middle of the slot after VanTassell had been stood up by a UMaine defenseman and the puck sat in the slot.
Irving made top-notch saves off Scott and Jeremy Langlois in the middle period.
The UMass goalie got a piece of his glove on Scott’s wrist shot from the middle of the slot, and then he got his arm on Langlois’ attempt to jam a loose puck in the crease past him after Justin Poirier drove the net and got off a one-handed shot.
Boija finished with 31 saves for UMaine.
