LEWISTON — Kael DePape was steady for the entire game.

The Maine Nordiques goalie earned the shutout in a 2-0 victory over the NAHL East Division-leading Maryland Black Bears at The Colisee on Saturday.

“When you are playing your best, you get in that flow state and it’s all in the way you prepare,” DePape said. “I took the right steps before the game and during the game — just stay dialed in.”

DePape turned aside 36 shots in the shutout.

Maryland coach Clint Mylymok said the Black Bears faced a hot goaltender who controlled where the puck was going.

“I thought their goalie was good with his rebounds and he saw a lot of them, too,” Mylymok said. “We talked about traffic, tips, bump him a little bit and I don’t think we did. You could see him build his confidence.”

With the win, the Nordiques (18-14-2, 38 points) completed the weekend sweep of the Black Bears (26-8-4, 56 points).

“You just got a team full of passion and pace versus a team that wants to play particular,” Maine Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “We aren’t trying to be delicate or particular out there. It’s not a chess game, it’s a track meet and we just sprinted them out of our building.”

Pinchevsky, who was celebrating his birthday Saturday, said he’s not apologizing for playing “sloppiness or lack of structure,” as Mylymok said after Friday’s 6-5 Nordiques overtime win.

The Black Bears outshot the Nordiques in the first period, but Maine got on the scoreboard first. Brendan Gibbons threaded a pass through two Maryland defenders to Blake Rothstein and Rothstein beat Maryland goalie Jack Wieneke (19 saves) nearly three minutes into the game.

Rothstein said the Nordiques weren’t giving up the lead after his goal.

“I thought we’d play strong defense and had a feeling we wouldn’t let him score,” Rothstein said.

On three separate occasions in the first period, the teams played 4-on-4. The Black Bears had the territorial edge when the teams had one fewer skater on the ice.

The Black Bears, in the middle period, had the 14-4 shot advantage for the second straight period. Maryland couldn’t get many second-chance opportunities off those shots.

DePape said the Black Bears tried to make life a little more difficult for him by skating and bumping him in his crease.

“Teams will try to do that, especially when they are struggling to score,” DePape said. “Any team will do that, and it’s something you have to battle through anyways.”

Maine had two power-play opportunities in the second stanza but couldn’t muster much offensive pressure on the man-advantage.

DePape survived a barrage of shots from the Black Bears in the final five minutes of the game.

Maryland did have a power play with under four minutes remaining in the game, but Mylymok didn’t think about pulling Wieneke during the man-advantage.

“It was a 1-0 (deficit); if it was 2-0, you could certainly look at it,” Mylymok added. “Part of the problem, too, was faceoffs. I thought we were weak on the draws. If we don’t win, they have a free shot at the net.”

Both teams were 0 for 3 on the man-advantage.

Laurent Trepanier, who had the secondary assist on Rothstein’s tally, put in an empty-net goal with under two minutes to play. He beat the Black Bears defenders and chased down a Gibbons dump-in. The puck was by the crease for Trepanier to tap in. Filip Wiberg also had an assist.

“Again, that’s the track meet. They had one more guy on the ice than us and none of them had the desire to get back and win that race,” Pinchevsky said. “We just said, ‘Fine, we will win it and end the game.'”

The Nordiques return to the ice on Jan. 30 when they travel to Attleboro, Massachusetts, to face the Northeast Generals.

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