University of Maine sophomore right wing Patrick Shea, who had scored just one goal in his last 11 games, snapped a six-game goalless drought by scoring with 24.4 seconds left in regulation to give the Black Bears a 5-3 win Saturday night over Quinnipiac University at the Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena in Hamden, Connecticut.
UMaine completed the weekend sweep and improved to 8-7-1 while extending its unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1).
Quinnipiac, which has played in two NCAA championship games over the past five seasons, fell to 6-10-2.
The Black Bears took a 3-1 lead into the third period, using second-period goals by Emil Westerlund, Ryan Smith and Tim Doherty to offset Logan Mick’s first-period goal for Quinnipiac.
But Tanner MacMaster rallied the Bobcats in the third period as he scored at the 2:41 mark and again with 5:12 left in regulation.
But Shea skated down the slot and pounced on a Nolan Vesey rebound, firing it past Andrew Shortridge to decide it. It was his third goal of the season.
“[Vesey] took a nice shot there, so credit to him, and the rebound bounced out to me at the circle and I was able to finish it,” Shea said. “It feels really good to go into the break with the sweep.”
Cedric Lacroix added an empty-net goal with one second remaining.
Freshman Jeremy Swayman made 45 saves and improved to 7-3-1. Shortridge finished with 21. Both goalies are from Anchorage, Alaska.
“This was a big sweep for us. It isn’t easy winning on the road [especially] against a proud program like Quinnipiac,” UMaine head coach Red Gendron said. “[Quinnipiac] came out hard again, but we weathered the storm and built a lead in the second period.
“To their credit, they fought back in the third and then we made a play with 24.4 seconds left. It was a simple shot on goal with someone going to the net hard, the goalie kicked the rebound right out to Patrick Shea [and he scored]. And then we scored an empty net goal,” Gendron added.
“I’m really happy to get the sweep,” said UMaine senior center Canon Pieper, who transferred to UMaine from Quinnipiac and had the opportunity to face his younger brother, Bo Pieper, this weekend.
“It was weird to play against my brother because we played together for so long. I tried to treat it like any other game,” Canon said. “We played well as a team this weekend. We stuck to the game plan in the second and third periods of both games and the results showed.”
Gendron said Swayman was “terrific” on the weekend. He made 50 stops in Friday’s come-from-behind 7-4 triumph.
“He gave us a chance to win,” Gendron said.
“It was definitely a team effort the whole way,” Swayman said. “Seeing a lot of shots like that the whole game helps me stay in the game. Again, I kept to my mentality … I took it one shot at a time. I was real happy with the way the guys performed.”
Lacroix had an assist to go with his goal. Brendan Robbins and Brady Keeper each had two assists. Robbins now has three goals and two assists over his last five games.
Doherty extended his points streak to five games (4 goals, 3 assists) and his goal-scoring streak to three games. Sophomore defenseman Patrick Holway had an assist to move his points streak to three games (2 & 5). Lacroix and Robbins each had an assist to go with their goals.
MacMaster with his two goals and Landon Smith with two assists were the only Bobcats to have multiple points.
UMaine won’t return to action until Dec. 29-30, when the Black Bears visit Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., for a pair of 4 p.m. contests.
Quinnipiac visits the University of Connecticut on Jan. 2.
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