The lights may have gone out Friday night on the University of
Maine Black Bears' chances to gain home-ice advantage in the
Hockey East quarterfinal round.
 
In what Maine head coach Shawn Walsh had called a pivotal series
for his team, the Northeastern Huskies scored three second period
goalsen route to a 5-2 win. And with Maine's loss coming at Al-
fond Arena, home-ice advantage in the playoffs may not be such a
welcomed thought.
 
The Black Bears are 4-6-2 at Alfond this season.
 
Maine's special teams continued to falter, as it allowed North-
eastern to convert on two of six power plays. Maine went 0-7 in
power play situations.
 
Both teams gave up short-handed goals in a wild second period.
 
Northeastern scored first with three seconds remaining on its
first power play. Frank Bouchard got the goal unassisted at the
17:58 markin the first period.
 
Northeastern made it 2-0 1:25 into the second period. A little
more than two minutes later Reg Cardinal fed Wayne Conlan to
put Maine on the board. The goal, which was short-handed, fired
the Maine players. That is, until J.F. Aube scored eight seconds
later to make it 3-1 Northeastern.Walsh pulled starting goalie
Blair Marsh and inserted Blair Allison.
 
Less than a minute later Patrice Tardif took a Cardinal and Dave
MacIsaac thread from Maine's blue line and skated straight for
Northeastern goalie Todd Reynolds and cashed in for Maine's sec-
ond goal of the night.
 
Tardif's goal would turn out to be Maine's last for the night.
 
Maine falls to 7-5-1 in Hockey East play and 12-10-1 overall.
Northeastern improves to 6-6-3 and 14-6-3.
 
                           SCORING SUMMARY
 
                      Huskies 5, Black Bears 2
 
                     Northeastern  1  3  1  -  5
                     Maine         0  2  0  -  2
 
FIRST PERIOD - 1. NU, Bouchard, 17:58
 
SECOND PERIOD - 2. NU, No. 21? (Melong), 1:25; 3. Maine, Conlan
(Cardinal), 3:17; 4. NU, Aube (McGillis, Shields), 3:29; 5. Maine,
Tardif (Cardinal, MacIsaac), 4:45; 6. NU, Parlon (Taylor), 14:31
 
THIRD PERIOD - 6. NU, Lupo (O'Connor, MacNair), 9:52
 
Shots On Goal
 
Northeastern  10  11   6  -  27
Maine          9   6   9  -  24
 
NOTES:
 
* It is safe to say Maine's sell-out streak has ended. At game time
  350 tickets were on sale. Icy road conditions kept many home. There
  were an estimated 3,500 at the game.
 
* Tuell got the call tonight to referee the game, as travel conditions
  forced Hockey East to go to a two-linesmen, one-referee system. Tuell
  is normally a linesman.
 
Ryan Robbins
Stodder Hall
University of Maine
 
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