Two third-period tallies helped the Maine Nordiques complete the weekend sweep of the New Hampshire Mountain Kings with a 3-1 victory Saturday in an NAHL East Division game at Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett, New Hampshire.

“They challenged us and I think that’s what we needed after a 6-0 win (Friday),” Maine Nordiques coach Nick Skerlick said. “We were put to the test and win a game, I don’t want to say dramatic fashion, but we didn’t make it 2-1 until six minutes left. It was a good experience for the Nordiques tonight.”

Goaltender Carter Richardson stopped 32 shots in the victory.

With the game tied 1-1 in the third period, Maine (26-8-4, 56 points) took the lead in the final seven minutes of the stanza. Nils Forselius scored the eventual game-winner when the puck got past Mountain Kings goalie Aiden Wright (34 saves).

“Once we made it 2-1, they pushed really hard on us and the line that went out there did a good job weathering that storm, and it seemed we were getting the puck in deep on us and controlling their forecheck,” Skerlick said.

Cole Hipkin added the insurance marker for a 3-1 lead.

Skerlick said Seth Merch helped set the third goal up and was one of the key players for the Nordiques.

Defenseman Luke Chappelle had an assist on both third-period tallies.

Lewiston’s Damon Bossie helped the Mountain Kings (13-19-5, 31 points) to a 1-0 lead in the first period when he assisted on Cameron Stehle’s power-play goal 13 minutes into the stanza.

Skerlick tipped his hat to Auburn’s Cam Robichaud, who coaches New Hampshire.

“I thought Cam’s team did really well tonight,” Skerlick said. “I thought they played really hard and Aiden Wright was really good. They stayed really disciplined, they didn’t take a single penalty. When they do that, they almost played flawless hockey. They made some mistakes — so did we. When they don’t give us chance after chance, we didn’t start dominating in spurts until the second period. They held on strong.”

Stehle started the season with the Nordiques.

For Bossie, it was his 11th assist of the season, which is second on the team among defensemen.

New Hampshire went 1 for 2 on the power play. The Nordiques had no man advantages in the game.

Kellen Murphy scored to get the Nordiques on the board with a second-period tally. Charles Tardif set the tally up.

Maine continues its road trip next weekend with a two-game set with the New Jersey Titans on Friday and Saturday.

NEWS AND NOTES

The Nordiques have added University of Maine commit James Bond for the remainder of the season. The defenseman started the season with the Mount St. Charles Academy (Rhode Island) 16U team, where he had two goals and 12 assists in 35 games. He also appeared in one game with the Powell River Kings of the British Columbia Hockey League.

Skerlick said the team knows Bond’s adviser and hopes this is the start of a relationship with the University of Maine.

“We are going to use this if we can establish a pipeline with Ben Barr’s group in Orono,” Skerlick said.

Maine also traded goaltender Adam Moller to the Minnesota Wilderness for cash considerations. Moller appeared in five games for the Nordiques, going 3-0-0 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. Maine now has two goalies on the roster in Richardson and Thomas Heaney.

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