The Maine Nordiques built an early lead, but the Maryland Black Bears roared back for a 4-2 win in a North American Hockey League East Division contest Friday at The Colisee in Lewiston.
“We got energy off our fan base at The Colisee, and we were able to feed off that energy,” Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “We were able to jump on (Luca Di Pasquo), a goalie that we had a vendetta after (last Saturday’s night) loss. We wanted to let him know that he was in our building, and we were coming after him. Jonny Meiers and his line were really going and the (defensive) was activating, moving pucks.
“And then we got away from it.”
Di Pasquo stopped 15 shots Friday night after making 43 saves this past Saturday in a 3-2 win in Maryland (14-4-3, 31 points).
Forward Jonny Meiers opened the scoring to give the Nordiques (6-9-2, 14 points) a 1-0 lead just before the six-minute mark of the first period. The goal was set up by defenseman Kadsen Johnson and forward Patrick Schmiedlin.
Meiers scored his second goal of the game with four minutes remaining in the first period to give the Nordiques a 2-0 lead. Schmeiedlin notched his second assist of the period, and Nicholas Bernardo also had an assist.
Meiers de-committed from Colorado College this summer and is looking to attract the attention of other NCAA Division I schools.
“He’s turning a page and he’s hungry to garner Division I attention because he’s a DI player,” Pinchevsky said. “He has an elite skill set and he’s a very smart, accountable, versatile player with a ton of tools. He’s just scratching the surface on where he will help this team.”
Maryland cut the deficit to 2-1 with under two minutes remaining in the opening period when forward Elliot Lareau beat Nordiques’ goaltender Gus Holt (32 saves).
Miles Gunty tied at 2-2 the game with a goal early in the second period.
Gunty scored his second goal of the game at the 3:20 mark of the third period, giving Maryland a 3-2 lead.
“I felt like their forecheck was helped a little bit by our lack of puck choices,” Pinchevsky said. “They just got a lot more first touches when we (dumped) pucks in their (defensive zone).”
Black Bears defenseman Luke Van Why scored an insurance goal with 45 seconds remaining in the game.
The Nordiques host the Black Bears again on Saturday at 7 p.m.
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