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LOWELL, Mass. – For only the second time this season, the University of Maine men’s hockey team found itself trying to rebound from a loss Saturday night.
And the Black Bears responded with a 5-2 Hockey East win over UMass-Lowell as Frank Doyle made 39 saves, 15 of the Grade-A variety, and redshirt freshman Derek Damon registered the first two-goal game of his career, including a crucial third-period power-play goal.
Damon and linemate senior center Marty Kariya each finished with two goals and an assist for the Bears, who improved to 16-2-2 overall after having their 16-game unbeaten streak snapped by Providence 4-2 the previous night.
Kariya extended his points streak to eight games (six goals and eight assists).
Maine is 6-1-1 in Hockey East with six of those games being played on the road.
UMass-Lowell, which outshot Maine 41-23 and had a sizeable territorial advantage over the first two periods, fell to 7-10-1 and 0-8 in league play.
After Peter Hay opened the scoring for UMass-Lowell, Kariya tied it with 1:14 left in the period and set up Damon to give Maine the lead for good at the 10:42 mark of the second period.
Todd Jackson made it 3-1 1:23 later, but Mark Concannon’s shorthanded breakaway off an errant Jackson pass pulled the River Hawks within 3-2 with 1:01 remaining in the middle period.
Jackson atoned for his mistake by setting up Damon’s power-play goal with 8:35 remaining. He fed it to Damon, who was camped in the middle of the slot to the right of UML goalie Dominic Smart.
“In between periods, I told myself I was going to make up for [the errant pass],” said Jackson.
Damon said, “I had slipped behind the defenseman and Jacks [Jackson] made a great pass to me. I lost control of the puck for a second and had to kick it up to my stick. The goalie hadn’t gotten to the short post yet and that’s where I fed it.”
UMass-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald was impressed with Damon’s feat.
“It went off his skate to his stick and in the net in a split second. There aren’t a lot of guys doing that. And he’s from Bangor, Maine. Good for him,” said MacDonald.
Kariya iced it with an empty-net goal.
Kariya said Doyle was the key to the win.
“Frank played one of his best games. They had tons of chances, quite a few odd-man rushes and breakaways, stuff like that. They’re a really good team. We had a few really nice plays in the first two periods, we came out with a lead and held it in the third,” said Kariya.
Doyle robbed Hay, who had been set up perfectly in front by Ed McGrane, by snaring his sizzling 15-foot one-timer at the outset of the second period.
“I was really deep in my net and it found its way into my glove, luckily,” said Doyle, who admitted his glove was close to being over the goal line.
Moments later, Lucas Lawson split a pair of UML defensemen, the puck squirted over to Kariya, and he found the wide-open Damon trailing the play.
“Marty made an unbelievable pass to me,” said Damon, who patiently held the puck while waiting for Smart to make a move.
“The goaltender was still up but I knew if I waited, he’d go down. He finally went down and I luckily got it up over him [short side],” said Damon.
Just a few minutes later, Doyle held his ground and got a piece of his glove on Concannon’s breakaway.
He made two more top-quality saves off Concannon wristers from the slot before Jackson made it 3-1.
After some sustained River Hawk pressure, Maine’s Robert Liscak made a long diagonal pass to the streaking Jackson on the left wing.
Jackson skated in alone, cut across the top of the crease, and “I slid it under [Smart].”
Concannon beat Doyle between the legs on his next breakaway to cut the lead to 3-2.
Hay had opened the scoring by one-timing a McGrane feed behind Doyle, but Doyle made several critical saves to keep the deficit at one until Kariya equalized on a two-on-one by converting a Jackson pass.
“Lowell carried the play early and we carried it late. We’re fortunate to come out of here with two points against a real good hockey team,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.
Doyle was happy with his effort and credited his teammates with doing “a great job in front of me, again.”
BLACK BEARS 5, RIVER HAWKS 2
Maine (16-2-2) 1 2 2 ? 5
UM-Lowell (7-10-1) 1 1 0 ? 2
First period ? 1. UML, Hay 6 (McGrane, O’Brien), 5:36; 2. Maine, Kariya 9 (Jackson, Damon), 18:46. Penalties: UML, Tormey, hooking, 11:00.
Second period ? 3. Maine, Damon 4 (Kariya, Lawson), 10:42; 4. Maine, Jackson 6 (Liscak), 12:05; 5. UML, Concannon 7 (unassisted), 18:59 (sh). Penalties: Maine, Heisten, slashing, 12:53; UML, Johansson, holding, 17:49.
Third period ? 6. Maine, Damon 5 (Jackson, Reimann), 11:25 (pp); 7. Maine, Kariya 10 (Heisten, Lawson), 18:56 (en). Penalties: Maine, Damon, holding, 4:28; UML, interference, 10:03.
Shots on goal: Maine 9-8-6?23; UML 15-14-12?41
Goaltenders: Maine, Doyle (41 shots-39 saves); UML, Smart (22-18)
Power-play opportunities: Maine 1 of 3; UML 0 of 2
High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 6-6-7?19; UML 3-11-10?24
Attendance: 3,493
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