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Men's Ice Hockey Travels to Second-Ranked Boston University
Jan. 5, 2009
The University of Maine men's ice hockey team travels to Boston University on Saturday night for a battle with the second-ranked Terriers. Maine is 10-7-2 on the season and 5-5-1 in Hockey East play after dropping a 5-4 decision to New Hampshire last Sunday afternoon. Boston University is 13-4-1 on the season and 6-4-1 in Hockey East play. Boston University is fresh off winning the Denver Cup after defeating host Denver in the championship game. A LOOK BACK: Maine fell to New Hampshire 5-4 last Sunday afternoon at Alfond Arena. New Hampshire jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 5:21 into the game with a power play goal by Phil DeSimone. Mike Beck and Danny Dries each assisted on the goal. Maine tied the game when Will O'Neill (Salem, Mass.) scored his second of the season on the power play from just inside the blueline. Jeff Dimmen (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Spencer Abbott (Hamilton, Ontario) each assisted on the goal for Maine. Maine grabbed its first lead of the game at 11:43 of the second period when Dimmen scored his fourth of the season from Kevin Swallow (Stanwood, Mich.) and Chris Hahn (Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan). Tanner House (Cochrane, Alberta) gave the Black Bears a 3-1 lead less than two minutes after Dimmen's goal. Gustav Nyquist (Malmo, Sweden) and Brian Flynn (Lynnfield, Mass.) each assisted on House's goal. For House, it was his sixth goal of the season. The Black Bears took the 3-1 cushion into the second intermission. Greg Collins scored a power play goal for New Hampshire just 1:36 into the third period to cut the lead to 3-2. Matt Duffy (Windham, Maine) answered back with a power play goal for the Black Bears on a shot from the blueline 4:08 into the period. Josh Van Dyk (Woodstock, Ontario) and House each assisted on the goal. New Hampshire scored the final three goals of the game to erase the 4-2 deficit and earn the 5-4 win. Mike Sislo scored short-handed goal at 13:02, Collins his second of the game on the power play, before Bobby Butler notched the game-winner at 17:39 of the third. Maine outshot UNH 33-28. Maine goalie Scott Darling (Lemont, Ill.) made 23 saves in goal for the Black Bears. He falls to 8-5-2 on the season. Brian Foster made 29 saves for New Hampshire. SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS: Maine is led by Gustav Nyquist who has a team-best nine goals and nine assists for 18 points. He has three power play goals and one short-handed tally. Brian Flynn is adding six goals and seven assists for 13 points. Tanner House is chipping in with six goals and six assists for 12 points. He also has three power play goals and a short-handed tally. Chris Hahn is adding four goals and seven assists for 11 points. Will O'Neill has two goals and seven assists for nine points. Jeff Dimmen has four goals and four assists for eight points, while Lem Randall (Snow Lake, Manitoba) is chipping in with eight points as well on three goals and five assists. Spencer Abbott has eight points on two goals and six assists. Matt Duffy has four goals and thee assists for seven points, while Josh Van Dyk has seven assists for seven points. Scott Darling has seen action in 15 games in goal. He is 8-5-2 on the season with a 1.84 goals against average and a .928 save percentage. He has one shutout on the season. Dave Wilson is 2-2-0 with a 2.76 goals against average and a .901 save percentage. POWER ON THE POWER PLAY: Maine tied its season-high with three power play goals on Sunday afternoon against New Hampshire. The Black Bears were 3-for-8 on the power play. O'Neill, House and Duffy each scored power play goals. Maine has 19 power play goals this season, the same number that it finished with last season. NYQUIST NAMED HOCKEY EAST ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Maine freshman Gustav Nyquist was named the Pro Ambitions Hockey East Rookie of the Month for December on Friday, Jan. 2. Nyquist led the Black Bears to a 3-2-1 December with three goals and three assists for six points. He scored at least a point in five of Maine's six games. He notched two goals, including the game-winner in Maine's 5-1 victory over Union on Dec. 13. FIRST LOSS WHEN SCORING THREE GOALS: Maine lost for the first time on Sunday when scoring three or more goals. Maine was 7-0-1 when scoring three or more goals prior to the New Hampshire game. The lone tie with a 3-3 draw against St. Cloud. Maine is now 7-1-1 when scoring three or more goals. RANDALL NAMED HOCKEY EAST PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Lem Randall was named the Reebok Hockey East Player of the Week on Tuesday, Dec. 30. Randall led Maine with a goal and two assists in the Florida College Classic. He scored Maine's second goal in 3-2 overtime loss to Colgate on Saturday, after assisting Maine's first goal. Randall assisted on the game-tying goal on Sunday against St. Cloud. DEFENSEMEN FIND BACK OF NET: Three of Maine's four goals against New Hampshire were scored by defensemen. Will O'Neill scored his second of the season, Jeff Dimmen and Matt Duffy each notched their fourth goal of the season. DUFFY NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Senior defenseman Matt Duffy was named to the Florida College Classic All-Tournament Team. Duffy had a goal in Maine's 3-3 tie with St. Cloud on Sunday night. It is the second time this season that a Maine defenseman has been named to an All-Tournament. Classmate Simon Danis-Pepin was named to the Brice Alaska Goal Rush All-Tournament Team earlier this season. NYQUIST AMONG ROOKIE SCORING LEADERS: Gustav Nyquist has nine goals and nine assists for 18 points. His 18 points are tied for second in the nation among rookies. Only Minnesota's Jordan Schroeder with seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points has more points this season that Nyquist does. Nyquist is fifth in the nation in points per game by a rookie, averaging 0.94 points per game. HAHN NAMED OFFICIAL CANDIDATE FOR LOWE'S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Chris Hahn has been named an official candidate for the 2009 Lowe's Senior Class Award. Twenty collegiate hockey players who have combined excellence in athletics, academic and community service were announced as candidate on Tuesday, Dec. 30. The award is presented annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in nine sports based on achievements in the "Four C's" of classroom, character, community and competition. CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School. Hahn is one of three student-athletes from Hockey East to be named an official candidate. HEARTBREAK WITH ONE SECOND REMAINING: On December 27 in the opening game of the Florida College Classic, Maine and Colgate finished regulation in a 2-2 tie. The game went to overtime where it looks as if it would finish in a 2-2 tie. Colgate, however, notched the game-winning goal with just one second remaining in overtime to earn the 3-2 victory. BACK-TO-BACK OVERTIME GAMES: Maine played overtime in back-to-back games in the 2008 Florida College Classic. It is the first time that Maine has gone to overtime in back-to-back games since needing extra time in a pair of games at Boston University on Feb. 15 and 16, 2008. WINNING 10 GAMES: Maine won its 10th game of the season on Saturday, Dec. 13 against Union. During the 2007-08 season, Maine did not win its 10th game until February 24. The Black Bears finished with 13 wins a year ago. BLACK BEARS LIGHT THE LAMP A SEASON-HIGH FIVE TIMES AGAINST UNION: Maine scored a season-high five goals in its 5-1 victory over Union on Dec. 13. Previously, Maine had scored four goals in back-to-back games against Niagara on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The last time that Maine scored five goals prior to the Union game was on February 24, 2008 against UMass. MAINE BEING LED BY UNDERCLASSMEN: Eight of Maine's top 10 scorers are freshmen or sophomores. Chris Hahn and Matt Duffy are the lone Black Bears that rank in the top 10 who are not either freshmen or sophomores.
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