ORONO — Brendan Robbins and Rob McGovern made their final spin on the Alfond Arena ice together a memorable one.
Robbins scored a pair of goals and McGovern made 30 saves for only his second career shutout, as the seniors led the University of Maine hockey team to a 6-0 drubbing of Boston University in the Hockey East regular-season finale Saturday night.
“The win’s most important. It’s our last game here, the seven seniors, at the Alfond,” said Robbins, who — along with the rest of his teammates — will now be on the road for however long the rest of the season lasts. “The whole thing this week was to go out with a bang for all the seniors. It’s something we can look back on fondly for the rest of our lifetimes.”
The win was the most lopsided this season for the Black Bears, whose previous best was a five-goal win (7-2) over Boston College on Jan. 16. It also was a 180-degree turn from the team’s last outing, a 6-0 loss at league-leading UMass one week earlier.
Maine (15-15-4 overall, 11-9-4 HE) finished sixth in Hockey East and will travel to Northeastern next weekend for a best-of-three quarterfinal round series in the league playoffs. Boston University will be seeded fifth and travel to UMass Lowell for its quarterfinal round.
Chase Pearson, Mitchell Fossier, Tim Doherty and Brady Keeper also scored goals for Maine. Fossier finished with three points, while Pearson and Keeper each had two.
McGovern made his first start in 14 months count, posting his first shutout in more than two years dating back to a Jan. 4, 2017 win over UConn in which he made 31 saves.
“It’s been a while,” said McGovern, who made 13 saves in the first 20 minutes of play. “My anxiety was through the roof when they first told me (I was starting). As the game went on, I wouldn’t say it got easier, but when you have a big lead like that it definitely calms the nerves.”
“We played an exceptional game,” Maine coach Red Gendron said. “It was great for all of our seniors, and it was great for Rob McGovern, whose been an exceptional player here at different times through some difficult times. … We’re especially happy for Rob.”
Maine’s second line of Robbins, Doherty and Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup turned in one if its best efforts of the season as a trio, accounting for three goals and six points in the win. That matched the line’s total offensive output from the previous eight games combined.
“It’s good when everybody’s clicking and we’re not relying on just a handful of guys,” Gendron said. “We had a ton of players have big games. … A whole bunch of people, whether they scored or not.”
Maine got off to an impressive start, scoring twice inside the first 7:19 of the opening period. It was a somewhat surprising development, if only because the Black Bears were locked into their playoff position prior to puck drop. The Terriers, on the other hand, could have earned home ice for themselves against the RiverHawks with a win.
“It’s BU-Maine, there’s a history there,” BU coach Albie O’Connell said. “They’re playing in their own building, the last game of the season, so they had something to play for, too. They played hard, really hard, and they wanted it.”
As significant as the start to the first frame was, the first 10 minutes of the middle period trumped that. Robbins, off a beautiful feed from Schmidt-Svejstrup, made it a 3-0 in Maine’s favor at the 2:28 mark.
“It was a horrible play (defensively),” O’Connell said. “A backbreaker.”
“It kind of set the tone for the rest of the night,” Pearson said of the early second period effort. “We had to come out and let them know they weren’t going to have a sniff for the rest of the game, and I think that’s what we did.”
Schmidt-Svejstrup’s cross-ice feed through the neutral zone split a pair of Terrier defenders and sent Tim Doherty in alone for a 4-0 lead at 8:38
That marked the end of Boston University starter Jake Oettinger’s night, after having stopped only eight of the 12 shots he faced.
It also allowed Maine to do what it can do well, which is play with the lead. In all three zones, the Black Bears flexed their muscle and kept the Terriers from getting many clean chances on McGovern.
“We kept it simple,” Pearson said. “The offense opened up, but we came out ready to play right at the drop of the puck. We carried that right throughout the whole game.”
Keeper and Fossier each scored in the final period to put the game well out of reach.
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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