LEWISTON — Missed opportunities doomed the Maine Nordiques on Friday night against the Northeast Generals.

The power play wasn’t clicking as the Nordiques went 0-fo-4 in their 2-1 loss to the Generals in an NAHL junior hockey game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. The Generals didn’t have any opportunities on the man advantage.

The loss is the first at home for the Nordiques, who drop to 6-2 on the season.

“It’s a tough league to win in,” Nordiques coach Noah Howe said. “We put 47 shots on their goalie, but we didn’t do a good enough job creating traffic in front of him, making life hard. I thought we responded well in the third period, but we were much too casual for a period, period-and-a-half and it cost us.

“You know what, for our team, our aspirations and goals this season, adversity isn’t a bad thing. Learning some tough lessons early on in the season is important for us.”

Northeast (2-4-0, 4 points) was led by goaltender Hugo Haas, who made 46 saves in the victory.

“It was a good experience and we came out and pulled out a nice win, together as a team,” Haas said. “That’s what counts at the end.”

The Generals opened the scoring in the second period as they capitalized on a missed 2-on-1 chance by the Nordiques. After Hugo Haas made a save, the Generals skated down to their offensive zone, where JR. Perdion was able to jam the puck past Nordiques goalie Tyriq Outen (31 saves) five minutes into the second period.

Northeast continued to ride the momentum as Ricky Boysen stretched the lead to 2-0.

Maine had a chance to chip away at the deficit when Northeast’s Hunter Brackett was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct, but the Nordiques didn’t capitalize on the man advantage.

“It’s a scenario that we need to improve on,” Howe said. “We certainly have the right personnel, it’s just a matter of execution; once we get one, we will get hot and start scoring on the power play. That’s one area as a team that we need to do a better job on.”

Haas’ shutout bid came to an end midway through the third period when Nordiques’ defenseman James Philpott scored his second goal of the season. The goal was assisted by Aidan Connolly and Reese Farrell.

Shortly after the goal, the Nordiques went on the power play again, and once again couldn’t convert.

In the final minutes the Nordiques were unable set up a good scoring chance — they iced the puck and an inadvertent whistle stopped play in their defensive zone.

“It’s a tough game and the hockey gods for whatever reason wanted to make life difficult for us tonight,” Howe said. “We will learn from it and be better tomorrow.”

The teams meet again Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Colisee.

BELOV BACK WITH NORDIQUES

University of Connecticut commit Ignat Belov returned to the ice for the Nordiques on Friday. The 19-year-old from Minsk, Belarus, was in his home country for the start of the season because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

“It’s great having Belov back. He’s been here for almost two weeks now,” Howe said. “He got cleared by USA Hockey and we were excited to have him back in the lineup. He almost scored on his very first shift and created some opportunities. You see his speed and you see his strength, there’s a reason why he’s a Division I commit.”

Belov had four goals and three assists in 19 games for the Nordiques, whom he joined midway through the season after starting with the Tier I United States Hockey League teams the Cedar Rough Riders and the Sioux City Musketeers.

Also returning to the lineup for Maine was Cannon Green, who missed the past four games with an injury.

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