The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s season came to a crashing halt on Friday night.
After the Black Bears scored the game-opening goal in their Allentown Regional game against Penn State University, the Nittany Lions scored the next five en route to an impressive 5-1 victory in front of a vociferous and partisan crowd.
The Nittany Lions dominated every aspect of the game, parlaying their superior speed into a significant advantage in high-percentage scoring opportunities.
The Nittany Lions outshot UMaine 34-27 with junior goalie Arsenii Sergeev finishing with 26 saves and UMaine sophomore Albin Boija stopping 29 shots.
Penn State, which lost its first eight Big Ten games and tied the ninth one before losing in the shootout, needed a 12-3-3 finish to earn an NCAA Tournament berth and improved to 21-13-4.
The Nittany Lions will take on 23-11-4 UConn, a 4-1 winner over Quinnipiac earlier Friday, in Sunday’s regional final for a berth in the Frozen Four in St. Louis. Game time will be either 4:30 or 7 p.m.
Both teams will be seeking their first trip to the Frozen Four.
The Black Bears, who won their first Hockey East tournament title since 2004, concluded a 24-8-6 campaign.
It is UMaine’s best record since the 2003-04 team went 33-8-3.
UMaine sophomore defenseman Bodie Nobes was credited with his first career goal when he swiped at the puck and it popped in the air and tumbled into the net behind Penn State Arsenii Seregeev just 4:08 into the contest.
But UMaine’s Thomas Freel was assessed a minor penalty for boarding 48 seconds later and the Nittany Lions’ red-hot power play took just eight seconds to tie the game up.
Freshman right wing J.J. Wiebusch finished off a perfectly-executed passing sequence involving Charlie Cerrato and Aiden Fink.
Fink fed the puck from the top of the faceoff circle down to Cerratoto at the bottom of the circle and he snapped a pass to the wide open Wiebusch at the far post and he wristed the puck past the helpless Boija.
It was his 13th goal of the season and eighth in his last seven games.
Penn State came into the game having scored at least one power play goal in its last six games, going 7-for-14 with the man advantage in that span.
Sophomore left wing Matt DiMarsico gave the Nittany Lions the lead for good at the 14:26 mark of the first period off a three-on-two rush.
Cerrato passed the puck to Wiebusch, who found the open DiMarsico skating down the middle of the slot.
DiMarsico fired a rising wrist shot over the glove of Boija for his 15th of the season.
Sophomore left wing Dane Dowiak made it 3-1 at the 18:08 mark on the power play.
Simon Mack barely kept the puck in the offensive zone and fed the puck over to Danny Dzhaniyev at the left point.
Dzhaniykev wristed the puck to the net and it glanced into the net off Dowiak’s skate for his 10th of the campaign.
UMaine head coach Ben Barr challenged the goal, feeling that the puck had come outside the zone before Mack played it which would have been offsides.
But the goal was upheld on replay.
It was just the fourth time this season that UMaine had given up more than two goals in a period.
UMaine entered the game allowing just 1.89 goals per game, the third lowest mark among 64 Division I teams.
DiMarsico made it 4-1 with the only goal of the second period at the 5:41 mark and Dowiak added an empty-net goal in the third.
Cerrato pounced on a loose puck behind the UMaine net and slid it to the middle of the low slot to the unattended DiMarsico, who one-timed it past Boija’s glove.
Boija kept the Black Bears within striking distance by stopping breakaways by Hobey Baker Award finalist Aidan Fink and Dzhaniyev and a point-blank attempt by Reese Laubach.
Boija was shaken up with 5:26 left in the period when Cerrato collided with him.
He was attended to by UMaine athletic trainer Paul Culina and stayed in the game.
The line of DiMarsico, Cerrato and Wiebusch combined for three goals and four assists.
DiMarsico had his two goals, Wiebusch had a goal and an assist and Cerrato notched three assists.
In Friday’s opener, Hugh Larkin and Ethan Gardula staked UConn with a 2-0 lead in the first period and Tristan Fraser scored a second-period goal 4:02 after Quinnipiac’s Jeremy Wilmer had cut the lead in half.
Joey Muldowney added an empty-net goal.
Hockey East All-Rookie Team goalie Callum Tung made 21 saves for the 23-11-4 Huskies, who are now 9-1-1 over their last 11 games.
Dylan Silverstein had 17 stops for the 24-12-2 Bobcats.
