ORONO – Brett Hopson spent virtually an entire day reaching Orono from his home in Prince George, British Columbia, to watch his sons John and Keenan play hockey for the University of Maine against two-time defending NCAA champ Denver.

But it was worth it.

Sophomore center Keenan Hopson scored a goal and he assisted on brother John’s first goal in a Black Bear uniform since transferring from Alaska-Anchorage as the Bears completed a sweep with a 4-2 triumph at a sold-out and fog-infested Alfond Arena.

“It was nice. It was an 18-hour flight for [Dad] to get here,” said John Hopson, whose third-period goal supplied the Bears with an important insurance goal.

Derek Damon and Josh Soares had the other goals for the Bears, who are now 3-1.

Soares had an assist to go with his goal and freshman goalie Ben Bishop continued his impressive play with 23 saves including 10 Grade-A (high-percentage) stops.

Denver, which fell to 0-2, received a game-opening goal from Chris Butler and a power- play goal from Ryan Dingle with just 26 seconds remaining. It was Denver’s first power-play goal in its 16th and final power-play opportunity on the weekend and its seventh of the game.

“The specials teams are something we have been keying on all year,” said Maine senior defenseman and assistant captain Steve Mullin. “The forwards deserve a lot of credit. They did an excellent job this weekend coming back to enable the defensemen to stand up and let [Bishop] see the shots from the point.”

Bishop said his mates played “great team defense again. On the penalty kill, the defense was blocking shots left and right. They must have blocked at least half of them. I owe a lot to the defense.”

The Bears blocked 15 of Denver’s 48 overall shot attempts.

“Bishop played a great game,” said Denver All-American senior center Gabe Gauthier. “We had a lot of chances but we just didn’t capitalize.”

As they did the previous night, the second-ranked Pioneers scored first. Freshman defenseman Butler closed from the left point, took a pinpoint pass from Brock Trotter and snapped a 28-footer over Bishop’s blocker just 1:52 into the game.

But Damon answered 6:01 later off the rebound of a Keith Johnson shot as he deposited it into the half-empty net. Johnson took a Soares pass, split the defense and took a 22-foot wrist shot that was saved by the pad of Denver goalie Peter Mannino.

“Keith made a nice play in transition. I just went to the net for the rebound and poked it in,” said Damon.

Keenan Hopson gave Maine the lead for good 4:17 later off a breakaway created by a Mike Lundin setup in the neutral zone.

“I was a little late backchecking. It’s a good thing Mike got it to me or I would have been hearing it from the coach,” grinned Hopson, who skated in from left to right. “[Mannino] was giving me lots of glove [side] so I was going to try to go backhand glove side. Then I felt a guy on me a little bit so I figured I might as well just get it on net and go ‘five hole’ with it. I knew if he slid over to cover my backhand, it would open up the ‘five hole.'”

Soares expanded the lead 5:37 into the second period off the rebound of a Rob Bellamy shot as he beat his backchecker to the front of the net and fired it home before Mannino could get back across.

“That was a huge goal for them,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “We had been on the ice way too long on a power play, we turned the puck over, they came down and bang, they scored. That was probably as big a momentum-changer as there was in the game.”

Soares’ goal came just 15 seconds after Maine had killed off a penalty.

The Pioneers received a blow to their comeback chances 8:11 later when 6-foot-4 center Geoff Paukovich received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting from behind.

The Pioneers killed off the five-minute power play in impressive fashion but the Bears took a two-goal lead into the intermission.

John Hopson made it 4-1 just 2:46 into the third period after Keenan and Billy Ryan sustained a forecheck and Ryan got it to him. The unattended John Hopson had his back to the goal but turned around and fired it off Mannino and into the net.

Dingle tipped home a snap shot by hardworking speedster J.D. Corbin to provide Denver with a consolation goal.

Denver outshot Maine 25-21.

Mannino had nine Grade-A saves among his 17.

Both teams were summoned from their benches on a few occasions to skate in order to disperse the fog.

The fog was created by a combination of the warm air outside, the heat generated by the sellout crowd and the fact a significant portion of the fans were wet when they entered the building and that moisture mixed with the cool air in the arena.

BLACK BEARS 4, PIONEERS 2

Denver (0-2) 1 0 1 – 2

Maine (3-1) 2 1 1 – 4

First period – 1. Den, Butler 1 (Trotter, Gauthier), 1:52; 2. Maine, Damon 3 (Johnson, Soares), 7:53; 3. Maine, K. Hopson 1 (Lundin), 12:10. Penalties: Maine, Hamilton, tripping, 14:49; Den, Carle, tripping, 18:05; Maine, Duffy, hooking, 19:54.

Second period – 4. Maine, Soares 3 (Bellamy), 5:37. Penalties: Maine, Tyler, hitting from behind, 3:52; Den, Paukovich, contact to head elbowing, 5:51; Maine, Johnson, contact to head high sticking, 11:31; Den, Paukovich, 5-min. major, hitting from behind, game misconduct 13:48; Maine, K. Hopson, interference, 19:38.

Third period – 5. Maine, J. Hopson 1 (Ryan, K. Hopson), 2:46; 6. Den, Dingle 1 (Corbin), 19:34 (pp). Penalties: Den, Trotter, contact to head cross-checking, 4:11; Maine, Shepheard, roughing, 6:30; Den, Stastny, holding, 6:30; Maine, Moore, tripping, 9:41; Den, Carle, slashing, 9:41; Maine, Tyler, contact to head elbowing, 11:18; Maine, Tyler, tripping, 18:52.

Shots on goal: Denver 5-11-9-25; Maine 7-8-6-21

Goaltenders: Den, Mannino (21 shots-17 saves); Maine, Bishop (25-23)

Power-play opportunities: Denver 1-7; Maine 0-4

High-percentage scoring chances: Denver 5-8-9-22; Maine 9-6-6-21

Attendance: 5,641 (sellout)