ORONO, Maine-- Maine Men's Ice Hockey earned its first victory of the year against Colorado College on Wednesday, with a commanding 4-2 victory at Alfond Arena.
First Goal: Colorado College's Troy Conzo played the puck down behind the Maine net, feeding a short pass to the waiting Erik Middendorf as the oncoming player across the slot, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead just 2:41 into the game.
Second Goal: Maine captain Chase Pearson scored his tenth of the season, taking the puck from the corner skipping through the defense, and whipping the puck on in front of the net to slip it through to tie the game 1-1.
Third Goal: The visiting Tigers retook the lead just seconds after the Black Bears got on the board. A drop pass in the slot by Mason Bergh set up Trey Bradley, who cut through the slot and whistled a rising backhanded shot to make it 2-1 Colorado College.
Fourth Goal: Brendan Robbins finished of a stretch of strong play in the Tigers' zone. He handled a pass from along the half boards after the puck was kept in and lifted a shot on a short chip to tie the game 2-2.
Fifth Goal: Capitalizing off of a turnover by Colorado College's defense, Tim Doherty captured the puck in the slot and fired in a rifling wrist shot through Alex LeClerc to give the Black Bears their first lead of the night. 3-2 Maine.
Sixth goal: After Colorado College to its timeout, Maine got to work. Patrick Shea won the faceoff back to Rob Michel, who's hard shot from the point was tipped in by Shea, who cut in and smacked the puck down and through LeClerc. Maine leads, 4-2.
Notes:
-The Black Bears' penalty kill was 3-for-3 in the game.
-Maine was strong in the faceoff circle, taking 32 of 59 (55 percent) in the dot tonight.
-The defense was stellar for the Black Bears blocking ten shots, while Jeremy Swayman stopped 35 shots on goal.
Next:
The Black Bears will host the Yale Bulldogs in an out of conference battle at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7.
