Eagles can’t Bear it, suffer ugly home loss
MAINE 7 BOSTON COLLEGE 2
The sound of the University of Maine fight song emanated from the visiting locker room inside the bowels of Kelley Rink last night in the wake of a 7-2 drubbing the Black Bears dished out to Boston College, whose partisans in the crowd of 3,361 surely left the building dismayed.
It was the third time this season BC had allowed seven goals in a game. BC, which played without injured first-line center Julius Mattilla (upper body), was outshot 42-36 and lost the faceoff battle 33-29, both areas where it usually excels.
“I thought we played a very good first period and made some nice plays. It was 1-1. We had one bad break on their second goal when it hit a linesman’s skate and went in and we didn’t handle it well,” BC coach Jerry York said. “Give Maine credit, They played well. They beat us in our own barn. It stings.”
Four Maine players, including Marshfield’s Patrick Shea — whose dad, Neil, skated for BC powerhouses of the mid-1980s — and Jack Quinlivan of Shrewsbury, registered multiple points. In all, a total of 10 different Black Bears had three or more shots on net.
“I thought our team played very well. The outcome was in question for a while but (Jeremy) Swayman made some saves that we needed. It was a real good road win for us,” Maine coach Red Gendron said. “We were not very pleased with the way we played last weekend against Northeastern so this was a real good win against a real good team.”
In somewhat of a surprise, York opted to rest Joe Woll (6-10-2, 2.28 GAA, .923 SP), who had started the previous 11 games, and used junior Ryan Edquist, whose last appearance came in a 3-2 win over Vermont back on Nov. 9. Maine wasted little time testing him on a shot by center Chase Pearson just before the five-minute mark.
“(Edquist) deserved a chance to start. He’s played well in practice here and Joe has carried the load for us. I thought he played reasonably well,” York said.
Maine took a 1-0 lead at 12:40 on a disjointed play. Quinnipiac transfer Cannon Pieper attempted a pass to the goalmouth and the puck bounced off the leg pad of Edquist directly to sophomore left wing Emil Westerlund and the 6-foot-2 Swede potted the rebound for his third goal.
BC (7-11-2, 7-3-3 HE) took advantage later when Pieper was sent off for a tripping minor. Senior co-captain Michael Kim spotted junior David Cotton in the right circle and the Carolina draft pick one-timed a blast for his team-leading 13th goal.
Early in the middle period, second line freshman left wing Jack McBain wound up breaking down ice with firstline right wing Logan Hutsko. The sophomore’s quick wrister was earmarked but Swayman (34 saves), a Bruins draft pick, slid across and foil the bid.
Maine (8-11-2, 4-5-2 HE) grabbed its second lead at 4:57 when center Tim Doherty fired a low wrist shot that changed direction on Edquist (33 saves). It gave Doherty seven goals on the season.
Maine freshman Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup stole the puck and raced in to put a bullet shot over the glove at Edquist at 15:56 of the second. That gave the Danish right wing four goals this season as the Black Bears led 3-1. The deficit grew to 4-1 when Latvian right wing Eduards Tralmaks fired another low shot past Edquist’s stickside at 17:35.
BC turned the puck over in its own end and senior Daniel Perez swept the puck ahead to Quinlivan. Edquist stopped that bid but had no chance on the rebound effort by Perez, who scored his first of the season. Maine led, 5-1, at 6:36.
The Black Bears’ Quinlivan made the outcome academic when he finished a flurry at 10:34. Perez and Pearson picked up assists. Shea followed with a rising shot to make it a 7-1 spread at 13:51. York pulled Edquist and inserted little-used senior Ian Milosz ( 2 saves) of North Grafton.
BC stemmed the bleeding on a deflection goal by McBain at 17:39.