ORONO – The debate will rage for a at least few weeks whether Denver was overrated or Maine was underrated going into this college hockey season.
Maine and its faithful aren’t in much of a position to care after Saturday night’s game.
Behind goals from four different players and outstanding goaltending from freshman Ben Bishop, the Black Bears rolled to a 4-2 win over two-time defending national champion Denver on Saturday night at Alfond Arena.
The sellout crowd saw Maine upend the champs for the second consecutive night, lifting its record to 3-1 on the young season.
“We didn’t expect (to win both games like this),” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead, “but sometimes that’s the way the flow of the games go. Certainly both games were a little closer than that. I think tonight’s game was a weird game because of the ice conditions and the T.V. timeouts, so it was a different game, but yeah, we’re very pleased.”
The loss left the defending champs searching for answers.
“I thought this was more of an evenly-contested game tonight, but they were a little better in a number of areas,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “They did a good job of getting their sticks and bodies in the way, and when they didn’t, Bishop came up big.”
Bishop was the big story of the weekend for the Black Bears. The 6-foot, 7-inch freshman from St. Louis got the start in both games this weekend and allowed just three goals. Saturday, he made 22 stops.
“I’d actually planned on going with both goalies,” said Whitehead, “but last night Bish got hot and it was just a gut feeling from our staff. We felt that was the best move for us right now.”
For the young netminder, the series was a big boost to his confidence.
“Just playing my game and trying to give the team a chance to win,” said Bishop. “I’m sure when Matty (Maine sophomore netminder Matt Lundin) gets a chance to play, he’ll do the same thing.”
Over two nights, Maine allowed just one goal on 16 shorthanded situations, and that one goal came with 26 seconds remaining in the game Saturday.
“It’s a shame they got that last one there at the end,” said Whitehead. “That’s been a real strong point on the first two weekends for us and obviouslyspecial teams is huge. It was an area last year that, yes our penalty kill was strong but our power play struggled, so it’s been nice to get some production from the power play, too.”
Maine was 0-for-4 on the power play Saturday, but are 6-for-25 on the season.
On offense, where the Black Bears are starting to show some prowess after two seasons near the bottom of the league in goals scored, Josh Soares, Keenan Hopson, Derek Damon and John Hopson all scored.
The Hopsons had arguably the two most critical goals on the night — Keenan scored to make it 2-1 in the first and John notched the clincher in the third.
“I played with Billy (Ryan, the Hopsons’ linemate) pretty much all of last year,” said Keenan Hopson. “We worked well together and John is obviously my brother so we’re going to know each other. We just know where each other is and it’s working well right now.”
Like Friday night, Denver scored early against Bishop. Defenseman Chris Butler fired a wrist shot to Bishop’s short side just 1:52 into the game to put the defending champs ahead 1-0.
Maine didn’t wait until the second period to respond, though, with two goals before the first break.
Damon followed hard on a Keith Johnson shot and rammed home the rebound at 7:53 for the Black Bears’ first tally, and Maine took the lead at 12:10 on Keenan Hopson’s first goal of the season.
In the second, Maine extended its lead by one when Soares pounded home a rebound on a long wrister by Rob Bellamy at the 5:37 mark.
“I thought the third goal was a huge, huge goal for them,” said Gwozdecky. “We had been on the ice way too long on our power play and we turned it over and bang they come down and they scored. That probably was as big a momentum changer as there was in the game.”
Maine had other quality chances in the second, including a five-minute 5-on-4 advantage and a late breakaway by Michel Leveille, both of which went for naught.
John Hopson notched his first of the year in the third to extend the lead to 4-1 before Ryan Dingle capped the scoring with 26 seconds remaining in the final frame.
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