Disclaimer: Names were hard to come by tonight!
 
The University of Maine Black Bears clawed their way back from a
two-goal deficit to tie the defending Canadian collegiate champion
Acadia Axemen of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 4-4 Friday night at Alfond
Arena at the UMaine campus.
 
Maine opened the scoring almost halfway through the first period.
Acadia had several point-blank shots against Maine goalie Blair
Marsh, including a one-on-one which took place during a Maine de-
fensive lapse which enabled an Acadian to skate right up to Marsh
and stuff the puck into the net to tie the game at one.
 
Dave MacIsaac put Maine up again at 18:37 into the first period.
The Black Bears outscored the Axemen 16-5 in the period.
 
Acadia tied Maine at the 2:10 mark in the second period with a
clean 20-foot slapshot to the back of the net. Maine's defense
continued to struggle, allowing another goal at the 7:28 mark.
Maine head coach Shawn Walsh promptly pulled Marsh from between
the posts and inserted Blair Allison. Acadia had 10 shots on
goal compared to Maine's seven, but Acadia clearly had control
of the puck and center ice for most of the period.
 
At 4:58 into the third period Acadia scored again, beating Al-
lison to his right, to make it 4-2 Axemen. The Black Bears an-
swered with a goal of their own at the 6:55 mark. The goal turn-
ed out to be the wakeup call for the sluggish Maine fans, who
immediately put some energy into the Black Bears. Maine tied
the game at the 10:14 mark. After Maine scored an apparent go-
ahead goal which was called back because of a player in the
crease, Acadia charged Allison at the 1:27 mark with a shot Al-
lison put a glove on, had pop out, and swiped for the save.
 
Acadia's goal tending was excellent, Maine's defense was leth-
argic in the first two periods, but offensively both teams were
pretty much even. I'll post the box score tomorrow (with names!).
 
The Axemen had a 35-4-2 record last season. Maine is now 4-0-1
against Acadia and 28-5-2 overall against Canadian college teams.
 
Ryan Robbins
Stodder Hall
University of Maine
 
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