BURLINGTON, Vt. - Maine scored three goals in the first period, including two on the power play, as they built an early lead and held on late to earn its first win of the season 4-3 over Vermont Saturday afternoon in Hockey East action. With this afternoon's result Maine improved to 1-4-1 while the Catamounts fell to 1-5-2.
COACH'S QUOTE
"This loss today was a solid lesson to our group that we cannot take any periods or shifts off," said Head Coach Todd Woodcroft. "After the first shift, where we played well, the remainder of the first period and well into the second, we were not playing to our identity. Maine won almost every race and every puck battle. We were not the team or even close to the team that we are working towards being. Absolutely, it is a small victory that we battled back at the end, but this is a small consolation. We beat ourselves with a poor start - players need to understand that they have to protect their spots on the roster with consistent work ethic and not just for a short period of time."
"We need to be better from puck drop to final buzzer and not just pieces of the game," continued Woodcroft. "The coaching staff will be reviewing how we prepared the team as well, could we have done a better job? This will be a demanding week on all the players, all the staff if we are sincere in our goal of being the team we are trying to be. We were not good enough today."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Black Bears opened the scoring on the power play 7:22 into the game. Ben Poisson fired a wrist shot on net and UVM's Tyler Harmon made the initial save but Adam Dawe was able to backhand the rebound off the post. Eduards Tralmaks put it home in the crease off the post for his third goal of the season.
- With 3:03 left in the opening frame the Black Bears struck again with the man advantage. On a bit of a broken play in front of the net Emil Westerlund passed back door to Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup and he fired a shot past Harmon for his second goal of the weekend.
- Minutes later Adam Dawe made it a three-goal cushion with a dipping wrist shot from the blue line. Following the first twenty minutes Vermont elected to have Gabe Carriere in net, Harmon finished the day with 10 saves.
- The Catamounts responded in the second period, they outshot Maine 15-5 and were rewarded late in the frame. Simon Boyko scored his first goal of the season with 5:42 left in the period. Andrew Lucas found him on the backdoor and Boyko was able to beat Maine's Victor Ostman with a quick wrister. First-Year defenseman Cody Schiavon earned his first career point with the secondary assist.
- Coming out of the penalty box early in the third period JD Greenway reestablished Maine's three-goal edge. Greenway cut down the wing and appeared to be looking pass before fooling Carriere with a quick low shot for his first goal of the season at the 2:21 mark.
- Undeterred the Catamounts comeback effort was led by Christian Evers. At the 9:57 mark Evers scored his second power play goal of the weekend, one-timing a feed from Ray Vitolins past Ostman in traffic. 88 seconds later Evers found the back of the net again with a wrist shot off the post and in. Vitolins was again credited with an assist.
- Just 33 seconds after the second Evers goal it appeared that Vermont's Vlad Dzhioshvili tied the game with a wrist shot in the slot. On the play Maine defender Adrien Bisson and Jacques Bouquot were at the top of the crease battling for position. As the puck went in Bisson hit Bouqout into Ostman. The original call on the ice was no goal, and after review the officials upheld that decision.
- The Catamounts also appeared to tie the game in the dying seconds of regulation. With .7 seconds left Alex Esposito one-timed a rebound off the end boards towards the crease, it caromed off Bryce Misley and a Maine defender but didn't cross the line completely as the Black Bears escaped with the win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Christian Evers entered this weekend with one two-goal game in his career, he had two two-goal games this weekend against the Black Bears. He also led the team today with four blocked shots.
- With two assists today first-year forward Ray Vitolins leads the team in scoring with one goal and five assists for six points.
- First-Year Gabe Carriere made 14 saves for the Catamounts in a relief role. It was his second appearance this season.
- After picking up his first career point yesterday first-year Dovar Tinling led the Catamounts today with five shots on goal.
- With today's result the all-time series between the Black Bears and Catamounts is tied once again 29-29-8.
- With tonight's score of 4-3, Community Bank, N.A. will be adding a donation of $225 to Special Olympics Vermont. That brings this year's total to $2175. Cheer on our Catamounts as they go for the win while creating a special bond with community members! Thank you Community Bank, N.A. for your support of our UVM and Special Olympics athletes!
WHO'S NEXT
Vermont will return to action next weekend with its opponent and location to be announced. Hockey East is shifting schedules in an effort to make up previously postponed games. A full schedule update from Hockey East will be announced on Tuesday, January 12.
