Boston University stole the spotlight. 

On a night dedicated to honoring the Black Bears’ 1999 national title team, Maine feel victim to an opponent with plenty of championship pedigree to its name. The third-ranked Terriers netted three unanswered goals in a 3-1 victory over the Black Bears on Friday in front of 4,919 fans at Alfond Arena. 

“We have to compete harder,” Maine senior forward Connor Leen said. “They brought the game to us. We were on our heels a bit too much.” 

Feeding off the energy of the crowd, the Black Bears (3-7-1, 2-3 Hockey East) wasted no time getting the upper hand on their rival, scoring in the opening two minutes. Leen collected his own rebound from the right circle and beat BU goaltender Matt O’Connor with a quick shot over his stick-side shoulder to give Maine an early lead. 

The Terriers (6-1-1, 4-1-1)  silenced the near-capacity crowd in the second period behind their special teams play. They scored on the power play to tie the game and grabbed the lead on a short-handed goal in the final minute of the second for BU’s first lead of the contest. 

“Anytime you come up here you really have to weather the storm,” BU coach David Quinn said. “Sometimes I feel we’re like the New York Yankees, people love to hate us. Certainly they hate us up here because of the long rivalry and the history we’ve had with them.” 

Ahti Oksanen tallied the equalizer at 8:48 on a one-timer from the right circle 48 seconds after Maine’s Malcolm Hayes was whistled for tripping. Evan Rodrigues found Oksanen with a circle-to-circle pass and the junior forward blasted a shot into an empty net as UMaine goaltender Sean Romeo was unable to move to his left in time to defend the shot. Rodrigues faked a shot from the left circle, freezing the backside forward, allowing Oksanen to be all alone on the opposite side. 

“Our power play hasn’t been great,” Quinn said. “We haven’t had a lot of them, but our power play hasn’t been great. I thought we really did a much nicer job of getting pucks to the net. We had six shots on the four power plays. Going into the game, we had 24 shots on all of our power plays combined.” 

The Terriers entered the game with 18 power-play opportunities. 

Danny O’Regan, who had BU’s secondary assist on Oksanen’s goal, found the back of the net in the final minute of the second period as the Terriers skated to a 2-1 lead at the intermission. Jack Eichel set the goal in motion, possessing the puck into the Black Bear zone and feeding O’Regan in front with a pass from behind the net. 

“It kind of did (decide the game),” Maine coach Red Gendron said. “The score was one-to-one and then they got a goal and it was 2-1. So obviously that decided the game.”

Gendron had high praise for Eichel following the game. 

“He’s a special player and that’s why everyone in the hockey world is talking about him potentially being the overall pick,” he said. “He’s pretty good. But that doesn’t excuse us from losing the game.” 

The Terriers held a 15-9 shot advantage in the second period. 

“There’s obviously highs and lows to every game,” Leen said. “In the second period we had chances to get the lead on them and after their goalie made some big saves it felt like we got a little deflated and we started letting the game come to us instead of attacking it. Obviously that last one deflates a team no matter who you are.” 

Eichel sealed BU’s victory with an empty-net goal with 37 seconds remaining. 

The Blacks Bears registered 11 shots on goal in the third period, but none were able to get by O’Connor. Both teams finished with 28 shots. 

O’Connor recorded 27 saves in the win, while Romeo finished with 25 saves in a losing effort. 

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