Colin Shields scores a hat trick as the Black Bears pound the Terriers.
BOSTON – When the officials gave Maine lemons, the Black Bears made lemonade.
Maine scored three short-handed goals, and senior Colin Shields powered the Black Bears with his second career hat trick as No. 3 Maine doubled up Boston University 8-4 in Hockey East action at Walter Brown Arena on Friday night.
It was an offensive explosion from a Maine team that collected only three goals in two games at home last weekend against Massachusetts.
Maine (17-5-1, 9-4-1) took a 2-0 lead near the midpoint of the first period with a pair of short-handed goals on the same BU (6-9-6, 3-8-2) power play.
With Derek Damon in the box for holding, Michel Leveille picked the Terriers’ pocket at their own blue line and put the puck past BU goalie Sean Fields with a 10-foot wrist shot foir the unassisted goal.
Just 32 seconds later, BU turned over the puck at Maine’s blue line. Leveille brought the puck into the offensive sone and fed Shields for the score.
“He came up the middle and made the move I thought he was going to make,” said Leveille of the first goal of the game. “I stole the puck from him and had a breakway. The goal) went to the right and he got into it, so I went to the left.”
It was the Leveille-Shields combination that provided the winning score for Maine, and it was a short-handed opportunity as well.
Leveille muscled BU’s Kevin Schaeffer off the puck behind the Terriers’ goal and fed Shields in front for the score.
Maine tied a school record with three short-handed tallies in a game, first set in 1992.
“The way we play, we try to pressure the defense on the 5-on-4,” said Leveille. “He cut back to me, and everything opened up. I was able to get the puck and hand the pass to Colin.”
“It was a crazy game with a lot of action,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “We are always lucky to come out of this building with two points.”
Regarding the freshman Leveille, Whitehead liked what he saw.
“He has great anticipiation,” said Whitehead. “He hits hard, too. He’s a complete player.”
BU didn’t make it easy for the first two periods. The Terriers got on the board at 8:29 with a man-advantage score. From Doyle’s right and low in the circle, Bryan Miller fed David Van der Gulik to put it past Doyle in the right corner.
David Klema also scored when Dan Spang’s shot went up and over Doyle. Klema, who had crashed the net, slipped it over the goal line when it came down.
Maine took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission thanks to Lisbon’s Greg Moore when he set up a play, then got credit for the goal. Moore fed Leveille for the shot from the corner.
“We got a little careless with the puck late in the first period,” said Whitehead. “We kept dropping it back. We should have gone into locker room with a two-goal lead after one, and if we had, it would have been a different game in the second.”
Maine increased its lead in second period as Shields scored both goals. First he wrapped a backhander around Fields, then teamed with Leveille.
Maine iced the game with three third-period goals by Jon Jankus, Luciano Aquino and Dustin Penner.
“We made unbelievable mistakes,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “We made unbelievable reads. It was a horrible play by us to give them two short-handed goals, and from then on it got worse.”
The two teams combined for 70 shots in the game, divied equally. Doyle stopped 31 shots, while Fields turned away 27.
Damon was unshered to an early shower at 4:31 of the second, drawing a major and game misconduct for hitting Van der Gulik from behind and driving him into boards. Van der Gulik had to be assisted off the ice but returned to the game.
The series concludes with a game at 7 p.m. tonight on Fox Sports New England.
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