Black Bears Roll On, 2-1 Over Eagles
 
Freshman forward Barrett Heisten (Anchorage, Alaska) picked a great time to
score his first collegiate
goal. With just under four minutes to play in a hotly contested 1-1 game,
the forward teamed up with
first liners junior Cory Larose (Cambellton, New Brunswick) and senior Steve
Kariya (N. Vancouver,
B.C.) to eventually slide a rebound past Eagle sophomore goalie Scott
Clemenson (Urbandale, Iowa).
The Black Bears got great goaltending form Alfie Michaud (Selkirk, Manitoba)
who made 38 saves on a potent Eagle attack throughout the night.
 
The late goal was the result of a Kariya rush and a rebound which dangled
dangerously by the left post.
Clemenson tried in vain to use his outstretched foot to seal the post but
was no more than two inches
shy. Several whacks by the Maine forwards and an obliging roll by the puck
and Maine had the 2-1
lead. They held on despite some more Eagle flurries on Michaud's doorstop
and the Black Bears have
now extended their unbeaten streak to 13 games (9-0-4).
 
As the game clock ticked down, B.C. kept up their attack with several more
chances in a bid to tie the
score. The Eagles pulled Clemenson with 1:07 to play with an offensive zone
faceoff. Eagle forward
junior Blake Bellefeuille (Framingham, Mass.) won the first of four straight
faceoffs in the Maine zone
yet the Eagles weren’t able to get one by Michaud. The final faceoff with
0:14 seconds to play was won
by sophomore Brian Gionta (Rochester, NY) when Bellefeuille was waved out of
the circle. Gionta got
the puck back to junior defenseman Mike Mottau (Avon, Mass.) but Heisten
made a great poke check
to move the puck out of the Maine zone and the play never materialized into
another Eagle scoring
opportunity.
 
Heisten and teammate Doug Janik (Agawam, Mass.) as well as Gionta have all
were recently returned
to their teams from the their participation in the World Juniors for Team
USA. Black Bear coach Shawn
Walsh remarked on his players performance coming off the tourney games -
“They’re dead. They need
rest! ... But they’re confident and strong ... Barrett is definitely
stronger and he made the play twice at
the end. He poked the puck out of the zone with his reach and he fell on the
puck in the corner. Those
are heady plays for a freshman!”
 
Michaud now has an 11 game unbeaten streak and is 8-0-3 in that stretch.
“You get good things when
you get great goaltending” remarked Walsh, “And we got great goaltending
again! He’s been
phenomenal.”
 
B.C. scored first, in the opening minute of the second period after the two
teams had fought to a 0-0 tie
after one. Gionta tipped home a shot by Bellefeuille just 0:49 into the
middle frame. The Eagles went on
to seriously dominate the Black Bears the rest of the period but it was
Maine who would get the only
other goal as the game was once again tied going into the third period. B.C.
attempted 27 shots to
Maine’s 7, landing 15 on Michaud as Clemenson racked up 6 saves at the other
end. Clemenson
looked very strong all game as Maine’s talented forwards did manage to
severely test him.
 
The first Maine goal was the result of an odd man rush, one of several by
Maine when the Eagles would
see strangely few in light of the B.C. dominance in play. This 2-on-1 found
Kariya and Larose in tight
and Larose taking the cross slot feed, holding a second before firing one
into Clemenson’s mid-section. The Eagle goalie appeared to be gathering it
in when he went down on his knees and the puck trickled between his pads and
over the goal line.
 
If not for the great saves by Michaud and the disallowed goal scored by B.C.
during one of their strong
second period offensives, it might have easily been a different victor. Andy
Powers also had one clang
off the crossbar in the games opening minutes. Clemenson also had some
terrific saves, absolutely
robbing Kariya in the first period. All in all, a very tired Maine team was
very fortunate to have a goalie
who seem nearly unbeatable all night. It all fares well for a great rematch
tomorrow night as the same
two teams faceoff once again in Chestnut Hill.
 
The attendance was an impressive 7311, especially considering the messy
driving conditions in
Boston. The power-plays were 0-3 for Maine and 0-4 for B.C. It was a pretty
clean game and
fast-paced, something that will likely be slowed down a great deal tomorrow
night. The win brings Maine
to 14-1-4 (7-1-2 HockeyEast) and the loss drops B.C. to 11-6-2 (6-4 in
HockeyEast). The two points
propels the Black Bears (16 points 10games) over UNH (15 points 10games
7-2-1) and into first place
in HockeyEast and further aids the Black Bear quest on the #1 ranking in the
nation’s polls.