PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The men's hockey team registered its first Hockey East win of the season against the University of Maine Black Bears (1-5-0, 0-1-0 Hockey East) with a 3-2 victory on Friday night. Goals from sophomore Drew Brown (Grass Lake, Mich.) and freshman Steven McParland (Schreiber, Ont.) just over two minutes apart in the third period helped the Friars seal the win on home ice at Schneider Arena.
The Friars improved to 2-2-1 overall (1-1-0 Hockey East) thanks to McParland's first collegiate goal at 5:03 of the third period that proved to be the difference in the game. Senior Myles Harvey (Orlando, Fla.) started the play up the ice, dishing the puck to Brown who set-up McParland to tap in the puck from right outside of the crease. Friar Freshman goaltender Jon Gillies (South Portland, Maine) had a strong game in goal, stopping 27 shots. Maine goaltender Martin Ouellette also played solid in net stopping 24 shots in the loss.
Special teams proved to play an important role in the first period as each team scored on the power play. Maine opened the scoring for the game with a goal on the man advantage by Connor Leen at 8:24. Gillies stopped the original Black Bear shot but Leen managed to put the rebound in the back of the net to give Maine the early lead. Ben Hutton and Stu Higgins each notched an assist on the opening goal. Only five seconds after they went on the power play, the Friars evened the score at 1-1 at 18:06. After an offensive zone face-off win , junior Derek Army (North Kingstown, R.I.) and senior Tim Schaller (Merrimack, N.H.) combined to get the puck back to freshman John Gilmour (Montreal, Que.), who was open at the point. Gilmour fired a shot that went straight up into the top left corner of the net rattling off of the crossbar, beating Ouellette. Schaller tallied his first assist of the season on Gilmour's second goal in as many games.
The second period continued with plenty of special teams opportunities as each team had three chances on the man advantage yet neither could capitalize. Back-and-forth action occurred for most of the period as the two teams failed to gain momentum due to the amount of penalties. The Friars ended the game going 1-for-5 on the power play, while Maine finished scoring once after four opportunities with the man advantage.
Providence broke the tie when Harvey fired a shot from the point at 2:56 of the third period that Brown deflected on its way to the back of the net. Harvey's shot originally deflected off red shirt freshman Noel Acciari (Johnston, R.I), who also assisted on the play that led to Brown's first goal of the season. Just over two minutes later, Harvey started the play that led to the game winner with a rush up the ice. Brown gained the puck and while he was right outside of the crease he slid a pass across the doorstep to McParland, who tapped his first collegiate goal past Ouellette at the 5:03 mark of the third. Maine came within one when Mike Cornell fired a wrist shot from the blue line that made its way past Gillies and into the back of the net. Nick Pryor and Mark Anthoine each tallied a helper on the goal that came at 8:38 of the frame.
With a start time scheduled for 7:05 p.m, the two teams return to Schneider Arena tomorrow night, October 27 to play the finale of their back-to-back Hockey East series. The game will be televised live on Cox Sports TV.
Notes Jon Gillies started his fifth consecutive game in net ... Tim Schaller leads all active Friars in points against Maine with six (4 goals, 2 assists) after registering his first assist of the season in tonight's game ... Myles Harvey extended his point streak to a career-high five games, scoring in every game this season ... Harvey tied a career high in assists with two (also had two assists on 10/12/12 against Sacred Heart) ... Defenseman John Gilmour has goals in back-to-back games, giving him a two-game goal streak.
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