Brian Tedder

Junior Cory Quirk played in his 100th career game as a member of the Massachusetts hockey team Saturday night. Quirk capped the milestone off with an empty-net goal in No. 15 UMass’s 5-3 win over Maine.

The win also ended UMass’s winless streak at seven after a 1-0 loss at Northeastern the previous night.

The goal was Quirk’s third point of the game after he assisted on goals scored by P.J. Fenton and Chase Langeraap. Freshman James Marcou also accounted for three points including scoring UMass’s (10-9-6, 5-8-5 Hockey East) first goal.

Maine (8-13-3, 4-10-3 HEA) freshman Jeff Dimmen went off on a roughing penalty at 16:40 of the first period. Langeraap and Maine defenseman Bret Tyler were called for matching penalties at 16:03 for hitting after the whistle. This gave the Minutemen a 4-on-3 for 1 minute, 15 seconds.

The Minutemen tested Maine goaltender Ben Bishop throughout the 4-on-3 but couldn’t beat him. As the penalty expired, a shot came in from the point, and Marcou crashed the net. The rebound came to him, and he slipped it past Bishop to tie the game at 1-1.

“It was good to get our first goal after getting shutout [Friday night],” Marcou said. “From a team aspect, I think [the goal] was a big boost of confidence. Once we had that confidence, we went from there.”

The goal came at the end of a period that saw UMass outshoot the Black Bears 22-3. But Maine only needed one shot to beat UMass freshman goaltender Paul Dainton. With his team’s first shot of the game Travis Ramsey sent a one-timer through a screen and past Dainton.

“We’ve been in that situation a few times this year. Everyone just keeps saying ‘keep battling.’ We have to keep our heads right and do the small things, go to the net hard and get some goals,” redshirt freshman Kevin Kessler said.

Injuries forced Kessler into action recently, and after five games without a goal, the big defenseman chipped in on the offensive side of the puck.

“It was a wraparound, so I started to pinch down. I grabbed the puck, no one saw me so I took it to the net. I just threw it at the net, and I believe it went off the inside of his skate,” Kessler said.

Goals by Langeraap and P.J. Fenton gave UMass a 4-1 lead early in the third period, but the Black Bears fought back.

Twenty-four seconds after Maine allowed its fourth goal, senior Nolan Boike skated in on Dainton and lifted the puck past him.

The two teams traded chances in the 11 minutes before Maine freshman Keif Orsini cut the deficit to one. He took a pass from Rob Bellamy and skated in on Dainton. He faked a shot, dangled around Dainton and tucked it under his left pad.

UMass ended the game with a 54-23 advantage in shots on goal. Bishop made 49 saves in the loss. The Minutemen dominated play for most of the game, but Bishop did his best to keep his team in the game.

“We were in the box a lot, obviously if we weren’t shorthanded we wouldn’t have allowed so many shots,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. “[Bishop] did everything he could to keep us there. We had no business being in that game at the end.”

UMass didn’t threaten nearly as much Friday night as it did against Maine on Saturday. Northeastern held UMass to 22 shots and killed off all six UMass power plays in the win. The Minutemen went 1-for-12 on the man advantage over the weekend.

With five minutes left in the third period, UMass had a 5-on-3 with two Huskies in the penalty box but did not score.

NU’s (12-8-3, 8-7-2 HEA) Randy Guzior beat Dainton at 1:30 of the second period for the game’s only goal.

Sophomore defenseman Martin Nolet suffered an injury and did not return to the lineup. The injury to John Wessbecker already shorthanded the UMass defensive core but Kessler, redshirt senior Patrick Dineen and freshman Doug Kublin have played well.

Joe Meloni can be reached at [email protected].