ORONO — Klas Leidermark’s shorthanded goal late in the game appeared to give the University of Maine men’s hockey team some life. But in a 2-1 loss to Merrimack, the Black Bears couldn’t find a way to sustain themselves.
In the season and conference opener Friday at Alfond Arena, the Black Bears had little difficulty creating potential scoring chances, despite being outshot 27 to 23.
But an ineffective power play, combined with Merrimack’s proficiency in blocking shots stifled the Black Bears.
Ranked 15th and 16th in both national polls, Maine finished 0 for 9 on the man-advantage, including a stretch of 80 seconds of 5-on-3 hockey in the second period, and couldn’t create many high-percentage chances deep in Merrimack’s zone.
“We have to work on getting those shots through,” said Leidermark, who beat Merrimack goalie Joe Cannata on a wrist shot from the right circle at 10:50 of the third. “We have to work on screening the goalie.”
Only a handful of Maine’s shots were high-percentage chances in front of Cannata (22 saves) and Merrimack blocked 19 shots, many coming from the perimeter of Maine’s offensive zone.
“We blocked the shots, and our coach (Mark Dennehy) tells us that we have to be able to block shots if we want to penalty kill,” said Merrimack right wing Jesse Todd, who scored the go-ahead goal at 19:05 of the second. “The first thing we know is that we want to get in those shooting lanes, and then we’ve got to block that shot.”
Those efforts thwarted Maine’s power-play, especially its 5-on-3 chance with less than eight minutes left in the second, as Jordan Heywood was penalized for holding at 11:22 and Kyle Bigos for hitting from behind 40 seconds later. The Black Bears (0-1, 0-1 Hockey East) put two shots on goal and the Warriors blocked three more shots in that stretch.
“Every time you have a 5 on 3, you want to score, especially with our power play,” Maine defenseman Will O’Neill said. “We know that we can make plays but when you don’t score on a 5 on 3, it’s tough. You want to score on those chances.”
Yet while the Black Bears maintained strong possession of the puck through the course of the game, they were plagued by an overall hesitancy in decision-making.
“We were waiting a little longer before we shot,” Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said. ” We had one, two, three stickhandles and then a stick was in the lane, or Cannata took an extra step out. That was a factor in the game, just taking a couple extra seconds to shoot. The possessions we had, we should have generated more.”
Merrimack (1-0, 1-0) took a 1-0 lead on Jeff Velleca’s power play goal at 4:32 of the second. The senior right wing re-directed Brendan Ellis’ shot from the left point between the pads of Maine goalie Martin Ouellette (25 saves).
Then with less than two minutes left in the second, Todd stripped Brian Flynn of the puck at the right point and skated in with teammate Ryan Flanigan, beating Ouellette to give Merrimack a 2-0 lead.
After Leidermark’s goal, Maine created a flurry of chances in the final minute with an extra skater, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
“We worked hard,” Leidermark said. “I thought we played a pretty good game. But it’s a game of small details. Shot-blocks, faceoffs, power plays. It’s a game that any team could have won.”
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