Men’s Hockey: Terriers take care of Maine on the road, 5-1

By Patrick Donnelly

ORONO, M.E. — Junior forward Wilmer Skoog had two goals and an assist in a 5-1 win for the Boston University Terriers against the University of Maine Black Bears at Alfond Arena on Friday.

Freshman defenseman Ty Gallagher, junior forward Sam Stevens and junior forward Jay O’Brien each scored for BU (19-11-3, 14-7-3 HE). Junior forward Ethan Phillips had two assists, and sophomore goaltender Drew Commesso made 28 saves.

“I thought all the lines played pretty well tonight,” BU head coach Albie O’Connell said. “On balance, it’s hard to win here. … Happy for the group. It’s going to be harder tomorrow, so we’ve just got to rest up and get focused for tomorrow.”

Junior forward Ben Poisson scored, and sophomore goaltender Victor Ostman made 23 saves for Maine (6-21-4, 4-17-2 HE).

Gallagher made it 1-0 at 12:21 of the first on the power play with a one-timer from the right face-off dot off a pass from senior captain Logan Cockerill behind the net.

Stevens extended the Terriers’ lead to 2-0 at 7:48 of the second on a drive to the front of the net after collecting a drop pass from junior forward Matt Brown in the neutral zone.

Skoog made it 3-0 1:28 later, redirecting a spin-around pass from sophomore forward Luke Tuch, and O’Brien extended it to 4-0 on the power play at 13:49 on a tic-tac-toe place with junior defenseman Dom Fensore and Skoog.

“[I felt] pretty good,” Skoog said. “Overall, throughout the game, I thought we played pretty well, and created a lot of chances. We could have had a few more goals too.”

Skoog scored on a breakaway at 7:32 of the third with a forehand-backhand move to make it 5-0. Junior defenseman John Copeland picked up the secondary assist, his first collegiate point.

“I was thinking to go five hole when I was getting down there, but I stuck with the other move,” Skoog said. “It worked out. It was good.”

Poission scored on the power play at 11:55 with a one-timer from the right circle for the 5-1 final.

Gallagher was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head with 40.8 seconds left in the second in an altercation with Maine senior forward Adam Dawe in front of the net.

“Tough to lose [Gallagher] there to that five-minute major. On-balance I thought, we did a decent job killing it,” O’Connell said. “I think [Dawe] kind of sold it pretty good, to be honest. [Gallagher] did get him up high with the stick, but [Dawe] was out there the next shift. So it couldn’t have been that bad.”

The Terriers and Black Bears will rematch Saturday at 7:30 pm. at Alfond Arena.

Featured Image: Wilmer Skoog (32) skates in on a breakaway before scoring in a 5-1 win against the University of Maine at Alfond Arena on March 4, 2022. Photo by Patrick Donnelly.