FRIDAY COLLEGE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: No. 15 Maine’s strong second period sets stage for 5-2 upset of No. 6 Denver

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Maine’s Thomas Pichette had the game-winning goal in his first career multigoal game as the No. 15 Black Bears beat No. 6 Denver on the road (photo: Justin Tafoya/Clarkson Creative Photography).

Thomas Pichette couldn’t have chosen a better night for the first multigoal game of his career.

Pichette’s first goal of the night at 5:12 in the third period was his second career game-winner and his second goal a little over four minutes later helped No. 15 Maine hold on to a 5-2 road win over No. 6 Denver in Magness Arena.

Lukas Peterson opened the scoring for Maine at 3:41 in the second, and Sully Scholle made it 2-0 with his goal at 8:44.

The Pioneers pushed hard in the third, outshooting the Black Bears 13-7 in the final 20 minutes and nearly matching Maine’s scoring in the period. The two teams exchanged two goals apiece within the span of five minutes, starting with Pichette’s first of the night at 5:12.

At 7:40, Denver’s Boston Buckberger scored to make it a 3-1 game, and Pichette’s second goal of the night at 9:35 gave the Black Bears a 4-1 lead that would last less than a minute. At 10:21, Kristian Epperson scored for Denver to cut Maine’s lead in half again, but that’s all the Pioneers could muster. At 19:01, Brandon Holt scored on the empty net to bring the final score to 5-2.

Pichette finished the night with two goals and an assist, and Holt had an assist on Maine’s first goal of the night. For the Pioneers, Buckberger and Kyle Chyzowski each had two-point nights, with Buckberger adding an assist to his goal and Chyzowski assisting on each of the Pioneers’ scores.

Albin Boija had the win in the Maine net with 29 saves on 31 shots. For Denver, Quentin Miller stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced.

No. 4 North Dakota 2, Mercyhurst 0

Ben Strinden and Jack Kernan each had a goal and Kernan added an assist in North Dakota’s 2-0 win over Mercyhurst. Strinden’s game-winner came on the power play at 6:51 in the first.

Jan Špunar needed just eight saves in his second shutout win of the season, as the Fighting Hawks outshot the visiting Lakers 48-8. Charles-Edward Gravel stopped 46 shots in the Mercyhurst net.

The 0-16-1 Lakers are the only Division I team without a win so far this season.

No. 7 Western Michigan 4, Notre Dame 0

Four different Broncos scored and Hampton Slukynsky stopped all 18 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season in Western Michigan’s 4-0 road win over Notre Dame in the Compton Family Ice Arena.

Iiro Hakkarainen scored the game-winner at 5:22 in the first period, but Colby Woogk’s goal to make it 3-0 at 4:04 in the third was the prettiest of the night.

Owen Michaels and Zach Nehring also scored for Western Michigan. Jack Williams stopped 26-of-30 for Notre Dame.

Princeton 5, No. 9 Dartmouth 4

Scoring on an empty net, unassisted, at 17:23 in the third period, Jake Manfre gave Princeton a two-goal lead over visiting Dartmouth. The Tigers held on for a 5-4 win, delivering the Big Green their first conference loss of the season.

Trailing 3-2 at the start of the third period, Princeton went on a three-goal run beginning with David Jacobs’ tying marker at 4:11, followed by Nick Marciano’s goal to make it 4-3 at 15:07 with Manfre scoring a little over two minutes later to make it a 5-3 game. Brock Devlin capped the scoring with an empty-net goal for Dartmouth at 19:38.

Jacobs led Princeton with two goals, and Kai Daniells had two assists for the Tigers. In net for the win, Arthur Smith stopped 25-of-29 shots.

For the Big Green, Hank Cleaves and Hayden Stavroff each had a goal and an assist. Dartmouth’s Roan Clarke made 23 saves on 27 shots.

No. 10 Quinnipiac 9, No. 18 Harvard 1

After leading 2-1 at the end of the first, Quinnipiac scored twice in the second and five more times in the third to defeat visiting Harvard in ECAC conference play.

Richard Gallant’s unassisted goal at 1:09 in the first gave Harvard a 1-0 lead. Ethan Wyttenbach scored midway through the first to tie the game, and Graham Sward scored the eventual game-winning goal at 12:27.

Wyttenbach and Victor Czerneckianair each scored two goals for Quinnipiac, Tyler Borgula had three assists and Antonin Verreault led all Bobcats with a goal and three assists.

Quinnipiac outshot Harvard 40-17. In the win, Dylan Silverstein made 16 saves. Ben Charette earned the loss for the Crimson, playing the first 53:31 and allowing seven goals on 33 shots. Evan Zhang finished the game in the Harvard net, stopping 5-of-7 shots he faced.

Army 5, No. 12 Northeastern 2

Trailing 2-0 early in the first period, Army scored five unanswered to defeat visiting Northeastern, 5-2, in Tate Rink. Five different Black Knights scored and JJ Cataldo stopped 25-of-27 shots in the win.

Dylan Hryckowian gave Northeastern a 1-0 lead at 18:40 in the first, and Joe Connor put the Huskies ahead 2-0 on the power play at 5:24 in the second. Jack Ivey’s goal on the Army man advantage eight minutes later pulled the Black Knights to within one. Adam Marshall made it 2-2 after two with his goal at 18:44.

The Black Knights scored again on the power play to go ahead 3-2 when Nils Forselius found the net at 9:53 in the third.

Billy Batten made it 4-2 at 13:14. Brent Keefer had an empty-netter at 19:04. Lawton Zacher stopped 34-of-38 for Northeastern.

St. Cloud 6, Yale 2

A third-period St. Cloud deluge of four goals on 22 shots overwhelmed Yale and gave the Huskies a 6-2 win, moving them onto the Coachella Valley Cactus Cup championship game Saturday against UMass Lowell.

St. Cloud led 2-1 until near the midway point of the third period, when Finn Loftus scored what would become the game-winner at 9:37.

The goal was the third of the season for Loftus and the third of his career through 49 games played. The sophomore defenseman played his first season with UMass Amherst. Austin Burnevik scored 1:06 later to make it 4-2. Verner Miettinen and Joseph Belisle also scored in the third for St. Cloud.

Burnevik had two goals and an assist for the Huskies and Tyson Gross had three assists for St. Cloud. Loftus added an assist for his first career multipoint game.

Donovan Frias had an assists on each of the Yale goals, scored by James Shannon in the first period and David Andreychuk in the third.

Patriks Berzins stopped 27-of-29 in the win. In net for Yale, Noah Pak made 41 saves on 46 shots.

UMass Lowell 3, No. 14 Minnesota State 1

With a 3-1 upset win over Minnesota State, UMass Lowell advances to play St. Cloud State in Saturday’s title game of the Coachella Valley Cactus Cup.

Dillan Bentley led UMass Lowell with two goals and an assist, including the second-period game-winner.

Jay Ahern hit the empty net for the River Hawks. TJ Schweighardt had an assist on Ahern’s goal as well as on Bentley’s first marker. Samuel Richard made 24 stops for Lowell.

Alex Tracy stopped 29-of-31 for the Bulldogs, and Jack Smith scored Minnesota State’s goal early in the second.

No. 16 Providence 5, Alaska 2

With even scoring and a 23-save performance by Philip Svedebäck, Providence beat visiting Alaska, 5-2, in Schneider Arena.

Beau Jelsma’s third goal of the season was his first career game-winning tally at 11:53 in the second.

The Friars never trailed in this one, taking a 2-1 lead into the second and 3-1 lead into the third. Jelsma, Clint Levens, Roger McQueen and John Mustard each had a goal and an assist for Providence, and Aleksi Kivioja led the Friars with three assists.

Lassi Lehti had 20 saves for the Nanooks.

No. 17 Cornell 6, Omaha 4

Three third-period goals lifted Cornell past Omaha, 6-5, at home in Lynah Rink. Trailing 4-3 after two, the Big Red scored on the power play, even-strength and hit the empty net to secure the win.

Gio DiGiulian tied the game with the extra man for Cornell at 3:43 in the third before assisting on Reegan Hiscock’s game-winning goal at 10:09.

Aiden Long scored twice for the Big Red, his first two collegiate goals. DiGiulian, George Fegaras and Xavier Veilleux each had a goal and an assist for Cornell, and Ryan Walsh had two helpers. Trevor Wong had a goal and an assist for Omaha and Spencer Sova had two helpers for the Mavericks.

Cornell outshot Omaha 43-18. Alexis Cournoyer made 14 saves in the win. In net for Omaha, Dawson Cowan made 37 saves.

Bowling Green 2, Ohio State 2 (OT)

With a pair of third-period goals, Bowling Green came back on the road to tie Ohio State in nonconference play in Value City Arena.

Brett Pfoh had the game-tying goal at 8:53 in the third.

Jake Dunlap’s goal late in the first gave Ohio State a 1-0 lead. Riley Thompson’s second-period power-play goal put the Buckeyes ahead 2-0 after two.

Breck McKinley made it a 2-1 game at 4:41 in the third. Ben Doran had assists on both of Bowling Green’s goals.

Cole Moore stopped 29-of-31 through 65 minutes in the Bowling Green net. Kristoffer Eberly made 32 saves for the Buckeyes.

Arizona State 7, Alaska Anchorage 2

Cullen Potter’s first career hat trick helped propel host Arizona State past Alaska Anchorage, 7-2, in the second game of the Desert Hockey Classic.

Potter scored the game-winning goal at 2:44 in the second period, his second goal at 11:04 in the third and the hatter with less than a minute remaining in the game.

Potter and Cruz Lucius each had four points in the game. Potter assisted on Lucius’ first-period goal and Lucius added three helpers to his own stats. Ty Nash had two goals and an assist for Arizona State, Kyle Smolen had a goal and an assist, and both Justin Kipkie and Johnny Waldron registered two assists for the Sun Devils. Samuel Urban had 22 saves in the win.

Tye Spencer and Karter MacNarland had the goals for the Sea Wolves. In net for Anchorage, Tyler Krivstov stopped 36-of-43 shots.

The Sun Devils will play Air Force Saturday for the Desert Hockey Classic title.

Air Force 8, Michigan Tech 2

Air Force scored five goals in the first period en route to an 8-2 rout over Michigan Tech in the opening game of the Desert Hockey Classic in host Arizona State’s Mullett Arena. The Falcons advance to Saturday’s tournament championship game against Arizona State.

The Falcons led the Huskies 3-0 before the first period was three minutes old, starting with Nick Sajevic’s goal 45 seconds into the game. Sajevic was one of two Air Force players with four points, scoring his goal and adding three assists all in the first period of play.

Sam Stitz was the other Falcon with four points, with two goals and an assist in the first period and another helper in third.

It was Mason McCormick’s goal to put Air Force up 3-0 at 2:42 in the first that held up as the game-winner. With the win for Air Force, Dominik Wasik stopped 29-of-31.

Elias Jansson had a goal and an assist for Michigan Tech. Owen Bartoszkiewicz played the first 8:30 of the game and earned the loss for the Huskies. In relief, Ryan Manzella made 26 saves on 30 shots.

Holy Cross 2, Bentley 2 (OT)

In the only Atlantic Hockey conference action of the night, Holy Cross came from behind on the road to tie Bentley, 2-2, with Bentley earning the extra shootout point.

The Crusaders took a 1-0 lead into the second period on Owen Kim’s first-period goal. Alec Leonard evened the game for Bentley at 1-1 at 8:35 in the second, and Owen Goodbrand gave the Falcons their 2-1 lead with his goal at 19:00. Noah Eyre’s game-tying goal came at 1:36 in the third. 

For Holy Cross, Danick Leroux stopped 25-of-27 through regulation and overtime, and Bentley’s Lukas Swedin made 24 saves on 26 shots through 65 minutes of play.

With the extra point, Bentley moves into a tie with Holy Cross at the top of the Atlantic Hockey standings. Each team is 8-1-2 in league play, each with 27 points. The teams meet again Saturday in Holy Cross’s Hart Recreation Center.