ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine will take a 12-2-2 record into the break after beating Stonehill 4-2 on Sunday afternoon.
UMaine’s Thomas Pichette and Stonehill’s Teddy Lagerback swapped early first-period goals before Thomas Freel’s late first-period goal and Josh Nadeau’s second-period tally provided UMaine with a 3-1 lead after two periods.
Frank Djurasevic made it 4-1 in the third period before Frank Ireland closed out the scoring for Stonehill.
Stonehill falls to 6-14.
Freshman center Pichette staked UMaine to a 1-0 lead with his first collegiate goal just 2:37 into the game.
Pichette was parked in the low slot to the left of Stonehill goalie Connor Androlewicz and deflected Jack Dalton’s wrist shot into the short side corner.
Junior left wing Lagerback equalized just 2:22 later with a one-timer from the left wing boards that found its way into the short side corner after fluttering through a maze of players.
Pichette and Lagerback didn’t play in UMaine’s 5-2 win on Saturday afternoon.
Junior left wing Thomas Freel broke the tie with 43 seconds left in the first period.
It was his eighth goal of the season but his first even-strength goal as his other seven all came on the power play.
Brandon Chabrier fired a pass to Ross Mitton near the left faceoff circle.
Two Skyhawks sandwiched Mitton and the puck squirted to the middle of the ice.
Freel raced onto the puck, broke in on Androlewicz and sailed a 20-foot backhander past Androlewicz’s glove.
Nadeau scored his fifth goal of the season with a one-timer off a Sully Scholle feed.
Scholle was again the provider on Djurasevic’s goal with a perfect pass that enabled Djurasevic to blast a one-timer past Androlewicz.
The Skyhawks made things interesting when Ireland converted a two-on-one but the Bears hung on for the win.
