ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team dug out its blueprint for success just in time on Friday night, enabling the Black Bears to erase a 3-0 deficit against Alabama-Huntsville with three third-period goals and win it in overtime.
They followed the blueprint to the letter Saturday night, working hard and smart from the opening whistle, winning loose pucks and limiting the Chargers’ time and space with the puck en route to a convincing 5-0 triumph at the Alfond Arena.
Maine jumped out to a 2-0 lead just 6:05 into the game and never looked back.
Maine extended its winning streak to six games and unbeaten skein to seven (6-0-1). Maine is now 16-8-3. Alabama-Huntsville fell to 2-26-1.
Mark Anthoine’s power-play goal and Brice O’Connor’s first career goal opened the scoring before Brian Flynn and Matt Mangene added second-period power-play goals to extend the lead to 4-0.
Maine went 3-for-6 on the power play and has now scored at least one power play in 19 straight games (35-for-97).
“They have a great power play. They move the puck well,” said Chargers junior left wing and assistant captain Sebastian Geoffrion.
“They create a lot of havoc on the power play,” said UAH junior defenseman and captain Curtis deBruyn. “We tried our best to stay in [shooting] lanes and block shots, but it was difficult.”
Senior left wing and assistant captain Spencer Abbott added a third-period goal to cap a four-point night (1 goal, 3 assists), and sophomore Dan Sullivan notched his first shutout of the season and fourth of his career with a solid 20-save performance.
Abbott leads the nation in scoring (47 points) and assists (32).
“Our big focus was to get a lead and build off that, and that’s what we did tonight,” said Abbott. “We had a real good first period. We got pucks and bodies to the net and it paid off.”
“Getting the lead really helped and then we extended it,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “There were a lot of good, honest efforts. We won a lot of loose puck battles.”
“There were a lot of positives tonight. I’m happy for [Sullivan] and for Brice getting his first goal,” added Whitehead.
“We were definitely a lot sharper tonight,” said senior center and co-captain Flynn.
Anthoine’s ninth power-play goal opened the scoring at the 3:18 mark.
Abbott broke his stick on a one-timer from the top of the left circle but the puck rolled into the slot where Flynn took a “whack at it” and it slid across to the far post to Anthoine, who simply tapped it home.
“I just had my stick down and it was one of those that happened so fast. It was just a reflex,” said Anthoine. “[Abbott] and [Will O’Neill] did a good job shooting the puck and creating rebounds if they didn’t go in.”
Sophomore defenseman O’Connor, who had seven assists in 30 career games entering Saturday’s game, scored 2:47 later by converting his own rebound.
He sprinted from the right point to the right circle and one-timed a diagonal pass from Kyle Beattie that trickled through the pads of UAH goalie Clarke Saunders. It was rolling toward the goal line and the alert O’Connor followed it up and poked it into the net.
“There’s a lot of weight off my shoulders now,” said O’Connor. “We’ve been working on that a little, but the coaches have told me that I had been coming in too early so I was catching the pass in my skates. So I slowed down, waited for the play to develop and it worked out well.”
“I’d like to have that one back,” said Saunders. “I know I can make that save.”
Maine outshot UAH 19-6 in that first period.
Flynn made it 3-0 26 seconds into the second period by skating down the slot toward the near post, taking a pass from Abbott and roofing a short backhander to the near (blocker) side.
“The puck was bouncing a little bit and got through their defenseman. I got it, pulled it to my backhand and it went under [Saunders’] arm,” said Flynn.
“I was a little slow reacting,” said Saunders.
Mangene was well-positioned for his goal as he was parked just to the left of Saunders and shoveled home an Abbott rebound that came off the back boards.
The Chargers had an opportunity to climb back into the game when they had a five-on-three that spanned 1:14 later in the middle period.
But they weren’t able to capitalize as Ryan Hegarty, Mark Nemec and Mangene did an exemplary job blocking shots and limiting UAH’s chances.
“They did an unbelievable job keeping the puck to the outside,” said a grateful Sullivan.
“It would have been nice to generate a little momentum off that [by scoring] and see where it would lead. But it is what it is,” said UAH coach Chris Luongo, who felt his team took a lot of needless penalties.
Abbott capped the scoring by sweeping home a Jake Rutt rebound.
Maine outshot UAH 35-20.
Saunders had eight Grade-A (high-percentage) saves among his 30 while Sullivan had just two among his 20.
“The guys turned in a great defensive effort,” said Sullivan.
Junior left wing Adam Shemansky suffered a possible concussion in the third period and skated off the ice with trainer Paul Culina. His status is unknown, according to Whitehead.
i wonder where andymoog or what ever the guys name is and all the haters are who thought maine was done just curious
I’m right here. Where were you when the team was floundering?
i don’t make stupid comments and i don’t call for whitehead to be fired either. i support the black bears
if your kid is flunking math and your kid has a really bad tutor, do you just say “rah rah, give it all you got kid, get an A!”, or do you replace the tutor?
you can support the Black Bears and know that a change is necessary.
If that change was WHitehead finally delegating some tasks to his assistants, then I guess he got the message that kicksaveandymoog was trying to send all along.
Tyler, the kid that is flunking math has some responsibility for flunking. It’s not just the teacher or tutor.
absolutely…again you are dead on..just stating the obvious.
oh no not mickeyharty again hatin on trh maine fans wow so much hatin and not care if team stinks oh mickey wat is wrong wit you funny little man haha
I was wondering the same thing about “kicksaveandymoog” and the others.
When they beat UNH it was “UNH isn’t the team it has been”.
When they sweep BC it was “wait until next week end. They have to win on the road.”
When they sweep BU on the road it was “BU didn’t have all their players in the game.”
When they came back from being 4 goals down to win in overtime Friday night it was “Coach Corkum lit the fire.”
Hey doubters three things:
1. Give some credit to the PLAYERS. They are the ones that lace up the skates,
2. Shawn Walsh is gone, and
3. It’s a GAME
yes sir….I hear ya sqawkin’
oh mickeyhrat be back,,., hatin on the maine fans again wow no suprise all youdo mickey,,,. why you always hatin in us anyways we just want good coachto come to orono and coach the team again funny little mickey man
I knew that the Whitehead apologists would be back again. Congratulations, Maine on a well-played game last night. Thank you, Coach Corkum, for getting things turned around after the first two periods of Friday’s game.
As for the program haters that want Whitehead to stay, I’m sorry that you don’t understand Maine hockey.
Coaches can only do or say so much. It’s the PLAYERS that have to go out and execute the plan.
“As for the program haters that want Whitehead to” go, “I’m sorry that you don’t understand” that it’s the players that win or lose games. And that it is just that…..a GAME.
YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT
you know a coach can bench a player who deviates from the game plan. I remember a coach who benched one of his best players for the rest of a game after scoring a goal. That’s right. The game plan in this game was to keep the score tied until the end and THEN score the goal. There was a pass across from point to point in the defensive that this player intercepted and he went in all alone on the goalie and scored. He was benched.
They players MUST do what the coach tells them to do. With Whitehead, it is even worse. The players have to read his mind much of the time. They get benched and they are never told why. Or, he benches one kid for doing something, he does not tell them what they did right or wrong. Or a kid bets benched for being late to practice/class or missing one, while others are given a free pass over and over.
Jake Rutt did not just decide he wanted to play forward.
Abbott did not just decide to play point on the PP.
Nyquist did not just decide to play entire powerplays so that his legs were rubber after 45 seconds.
It is the coaches much more than you think.
That said. I am glad that the team looks like it is turning around.
A good coach will beat Providence this weekend and NOT completely look ahead to Doug Carr and set up the weekend game plan on how to “take Doug’s eyes away”. Then his team will beat Doug Carr.
Tyler I honestly don’t think what I posted was to much different from what you said.
The coaching staff can only do so much. Once the game starts its the PLAYERS that have to win the game. Sure they can bench players, change positions for players, pull a goalie, etc…but it’s the PLAYERS that win and lose the game.
And the proof of what I said is in this niave statement, “A good coach will beat Providence this weekend…”. No, a good coach will have a team prepared to win the game with a game plan.
The coach is akin to a Commanding General. They come up with the game plan but it is the front line troops (the players) that have to execute the plan. If they do, they win. If they don’t, they lose.
It’s not just a game. It’s Maine hockey.
In the final analysis, it is still a game.
Nonsense. Absolute dedication to Whitehead without holding him accountable for the state of this program is ridiculous. You make it sound like once the game starts coaches should just sit back and chew gum. Wait, that is what Timmay does.
Hockey is a game of constant in-game adjustments, and that is where Timmay is way out of his depth compared to other DI coaches. Sure, Timmay can game plan and how many times has Maine lost early leads in games because Timmay wanted to hold onto the lead rather than closing out the game. Sun Tzu say when you have your foot on your opponent’s neck – ya put em away.
You will have to forgive me BB but where have I shown “absolute dedication to Whitehead”? Where have I said he is without “accountability”?
You clearly don’t understand the game or the role of coaches so what’s the point…
A. I understand the game just fine but thank you for asking.
B. In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team.
Yup, that pretty much says it all.
I agree that the players need to be held accountable for their play, and a coach is supposed to do that. However, in the college game the coach is also responsible for assembling the team on the ice through recruiting. While I like all of the players on our team, and they are finally starting to play well together, Maine has been looking as the backsides of most of college hockey when it comes to top tier recruits. Even places like Union, that don’t have scholarships are getting better players than we are. Providence has draft picks in this last class. It comes down to the coach, who hasn’t had this team battle ready in the past five years, and that is the reason there are people who once advised people to come to Maine to further their hockey careers telling them to go elsewhere.
Great game UM lastnight…..way to come right out under fire, and working the powerplay the way it has this year…..19 straight games with a ppg. And leading the way is our Hobey guy Abbott! Couple games on the road next week, especially the HUGE game at UMass Lowell which would be another huge win for us to knock them down the pairwise a little bit. : )
Congratulations Maine on a great weekend and a great Team effort to victory last night. 5 goals with 5 different Guys lighting the lamp, awesome! Congrats on the shutout Sully and keep up the good work!
Go Blue!
great game last night players and coaches.. better showing than friday nights game from the start….. hope the guys can keep playing like this for the rest of the season and win big this yr…. keep up the great work guys
Last nights game was what I expected against an undermanned UAH team. Blew them off the ice, I wonder if Coach Corkum ran the film meeting yesterday as the team was prepared from the outset to spank UAH. A win is a win but UAH can’t play with any team in HE except maybe Vermont so… Big weekend coming up, really need to beat Lowell and that won’t be easy.
Another nice weekend for the players and Coach Corkum….
Unfortunately I was not able to get up there this weekend . What did Corkum do and was he running the D?
Corkum is basically the coach now. That’s why they win.
The last 5 years 78-77-20 with no tournament appearances and nothing more than smoke and mirrors this year. It appears the standards have been lowered to the point where some get excited over a sweep of a glorified D3 school just the way Whitehead wants it.
BC and BU are far from “glorified D3” schools.
Obviously the comment was about UAH.
Mike here’s the deal…the Black Bears since 12/2/11 are 12-2-1. 12 of those games have been against HE opponents where their record is 9-2-1. Not to bad considering how they started the season.
They swept two nationally ranked teams. They came back from 3 goals down Friday night and didn’t allow a goal on Saturday night.
While the season isn’t over, I think they deserve some credit for how they have played the second half of this season.
Why would a hockey powerhouse like Maine play a small southern school to begin with; kind of like UMO playing Lewiston High School. As an alumni -play “real” hockey schools!Might give the team more credibility in the polls….
Same reason UMaine Football plays
Pittsburgh. Experience and $$
Absolutely incorrect. Maine scheduled UAH because when their conference dis-banded they were left with massive holes in their schedule and were forced to come up with the required 34 regular seasons games or shut down the program. Maine scheduled them for that reason.
As I said above, you are clueless about almost everything you post here….
Well now you sure did put me in my place BB. Of course you offer no proof to back up your claims but I am sure that you are the BMOC and never find it necessary to back up anything. I am sure that one of the reasons may be when you spout off, no one wants to challenge you as they will incur your wrath and name calling.
Yes you certainly are the BMOC and in your mind still playing D1 sports at the collegiate level.