At UVM’s expense, Maine earns first win of season

ORNO, Maine - A band of Maine Black Bears starved for goals and victories netted just enough of the former to withstand a late Vermont charge for a season’s-first win, 3-2, in Hockey East play at Alfond Arena on Friday night.

Prior to the meeting, Maine had lost eight straight after three successive ties to open the season. During their losing streak, the Bears had been shut out five times and scored more than one goal just once, a 5-4 overtime loss to Massachusetts.

Friday, the Black Bears scored once in the first period and twice in the second for their largest lead at any point this year. That 3-0 lead was enough to absorb a 23-shot UVM siege in the final 20 minutes, the Catamounts scoring twice in the last five minutes to threaten but not overtake Maine.

In addition to a lackluster first period, the Catamounts struggled with penalties and the penalty kill again, giving up two power play goals to Maine’s Dan Renouf in the second. Through two periods, the Black Bears piled up a 27-18 edge in shots on goal.

The third period was all UVM with the Catamounts (3-7-2; 2-3-2 HEA) pouring 23 shots on Maine goalie Matt Morris (39 saves). Rob Hamilton finally broke up the shutout at 14:43 and Mario Puskarich tallied exactly one minute later.

But Vermont’s attempt to emulate Massachusetts’ feat last Sunday fell short. That afternoon, the Minutemen rallied to a 3-3 tie after trailing 3-0 through 40 minutes.

“We were not prepared to play. I guess I will take responsibility for that. I don’t know what happened,” said a frustrated UVM coach, Kevin Sneddon. “They took it to us for the first two periods; give them a lot of credit. They were hungry and we didn’t match their intensity.”

Even the Catamounts’ spirited third period couldn’t offset their opening 40 minutes. Sneddon explained the late turnaround by saying, “We played with desperation and that’s how we should have started the game.

“For two periods, we had zero desperation, zero passion, zero toughness. We were down a field goal and then we played with desperation, urgency and toughness,” Sneddon said. “It’s a frustrating situation when we don’t understand how we have to play a full 60 minutes on the road against a team that’s definitely desperate.

“We seemed surprised by how they played and I have to give Red’s team a lot of credit for the way they played,” Sneddon said.

A stagnant Vermont offense let Maine (1-8-3; 1-4-0 HEA) rule play in the first period, though the Black Bears went until the 16:30 mark before Blaine Byron turned the Maine superiority into a 1-0 lead. Byron carved around a Catamount defender for the open shot at UVM goalie Mike Santaguida ((26 saves), putting the puck behind the sprawling goalie.

Twenty-one seconds into the second period, Renouf struck on the power play and he duplicated the feat at 7:52 for the 3-0 lead. “The first one was on a complete turnover. We had a chance to clear and put it up the middle right on the kid’s stick. That’s a tough way to start the second,” said Sneddon, who said Renouf’s second goal resulted in part from a bad read by the penalty killers.

Last season, Vermont swept four regular-season games against Maine, including two in Hockey East play, and then won a first-round HEA playoff series two-games-to-one. The Catamounts and the Black Bears meet again in the second game of the series tonight.

Free Press correspondent Ted Ryan contributed to this report. Contact him at TedRyanVT@aol.com and follow him on Twitter at @TedRyanVT