Maine goals fells as fast as raindrops in the first period of an eventual 7-3 win for the Black Bears against the Boston University Terriers Saturday at Boston's Fenway Park. Maine sophomore Ryan Lomberg (Richmond Hill, Ont.) led the way with two goals and a team-pacing seven shots-on-goal.
The first period wasn't even half over when the skies opened up to create a one-hour rain delay, an uncommon occurrence for ice hockey. Prior to the delay, the Black Bears had taken an early 1-0 lead on a power play laser from the slot by Lomberg that cut right through BU goalie Matt O'Connor (Toronto, Ont.) The Bears needed just five seconds after the resumption of play to make it 2-0 on a seeing-eye wrister from blueliner Ben Hutton (Prescott, Ont.) that found its way between two teammates screening O'Connor. Andrew Cerretani (Pelham, N.H.) upped it to 3-0 with the first goal of his junior season at 15:07 and the Black Bears added their third power play goal of the period less than a minute later on another screen shot, this one a slapshot from centerman Devin Shore (Ajaz, Ont.) that chased O'Connor from the contest in favor of backup Sean Maguire (Powell River, B.C.)
Shore's score ended up as the game-winner when BU rallied for three goals in just over five minutes midway through the third to close the gap to 5-3. Defenseman Garrett Noonan (Norfolk, Mass.) broke the shutout bid by Maine's Martin Ouellette (St. Hippolyte, Quebec) with a one-time launch from the top of the right circle off a saucer D-to-D pass from Dalton MacAfee (Needham, Mass.) Back-to-back tipped shots around Ouellette cut the deficit to just two goals with five minutes remaining, but Hutton sealed it with a clearing attempt that ran its way all the way into the empty net at the other end at 17:41.
Shore added an empty-netter of his own to finish the game with two goals and one assist, joining Lomberg and Hutton as Maine's multiple-goal scorers on the evening. Ouellette collected his 10th win of the season by stopping 31 of 34 Terriers shots. O'Connor took the loss after getting barraged by 19 shots in the first before being lifted for Maguire, who stopped 16 of 17 shots faced.
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