Maine Hockey Journal

Black Bears take game one

Orono, Me– The Black Bears made it six in a row. They defeated Merrimack 2-1 at the Alfond Arena of the two game series. After J.C Robitaille’s goal that came 46 seconds into the contest, Maine answered back with two goals in the first. Will O’Neil tied the game up and Brett Carriere got the game winner. Dave Wilson made 19 saves in the victory.

46 seconds into the contest, J.C Robitaille slid the puck pas Dave Wilson. Jesse Todd and Chris Barton grabbed assists. 31 seconds later, Simon Danis Pepin went off for hitting after the whistle. Maine would go on the Powerplay when Kurtis Astle went off for hooking, 3:46 in to the game.

The Black Bears best chance with the man advantage was when there was a race for the puck in front of the net. Four seconds after the powerplay expired, Will O’Neil notched his first collegiate goal. Another freshman, Spencer Abbott got the lone assist.

The Black Bears went up 2-1 at the 9:43 mark when Andrew Braithwaite couldn’t control a Jeff Marshall shot and Brett Carriere lit the lamp. John Van Dyk got the secondary assist.

Maine went back on the powerplay when J.C. Robitalle went off for cross checking at the 11:42 mark. They couldn’t get anything going on the man advantage. With 2:08 left in the stanza, Joe Cucci went off for interference. Maine had their chances. Cucci had a breakaway when he came out of the sin bin but Wilson made the save.

1:11 into the second, Jeff Dimmen got called for boarding. Merrimack couldn’t set up the powerplay. Even though the Warriors couldn’t get a powerplay goal, they kept the pressure on early in the second.

Gustav Nyquist made a move to the net but couldn’t split the defenseman. He was able to get a shot on Braithwaite. He slammed his stick against the boards but was called for a unsportsmanlike conduct with 9:56 remaining. His teammates were able to pick him up as they killed off the penalty.

Nyquist went back on the offensive and pick pocketed a Warriors’ defenseman but couldn’t control the puck. Dimmen got a game misconduct with 2:07 left in second for a hitting from behind call. He also received a five minute major. Wilson made a big save in the final seconds of the period.

Maine came out in the third and didn’t allow the Merrimack powerplay to set up in the offensive zone. They had a nice two on one chance with 40 seconds left in the five minute major. The Warriors were called for too many players on the ice with 33 seconds left. Braithwaite left a few rebounds for Maine’s taking on the shorten powerplay.

At the 6:58 mark, Adam Ross went to the sin bin for interference. It was a firing range on Braithwaite. Maine had the puck in Merrimack’s zone for the entire man advantage. With 5:20 left Ross visited the box again when he tripped Nyquist. Merrimack killed off another powerplay.

With 1:27 left, the Warriors called a timeout. Their net was empty. Merrimack’s best chance was with 36 seconds left in the game. Wilson was able to cover up the puck that was sitting outside of his crease. Maine put the nail in the coffin when they iced the puck with 1.9 seconds remaining.

Wilson stopped 19 of 20 shots and Andrew Braithwaite made 21 stops on 23 chances. Maine was 0 for 6 with man advantage and Merrimack was 0 for 4. The three stars were:

3. Andrew Braithwaite (Merrimack)

2. Will O’Neil (Maine)

1. Brett Carriere (Maine)

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply