Orono, ME – The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team swept the weekend series against the Providence College Friars with a 3-1 victory in front of 4,123 at Alfond Arena on Saturday night.

The Black Bears improved to 6-4-1 in Hockey East (8-7-1 overall).

“We were really determined to get out of the gate strong,” said Tim Whitehead Maine’s head coach. “We were able to stay out of the box and got pucks deep. Playing 5-on-5 we were able to generate a lot of chances.”

Second chances led to the Black Bear’s first goal as Joey Diamond picked up the loose puck and kept whacking at it in front of Providence goalie Alex Beaudry before the puck finally crossed the goal line at 9:41 of the first period.

If it wasn’t for Beaudry, the Black Bears could have opened the flood gates early after firing 21 shots in the first period on the sophomore netminder.

“He played great especially in the first period,” said Tim Army, the former Portland Pirates head coach and now Friars head coach. “He kept us in and gave us a chance to stay in the game.”

Alex Beaudry made 33 saves on the night.

The Friars answered back with 7:33 to play in the first period. Matt Germain saucered a pass to Eric Baier who had a wide open cage to shoot at.

Spencer Abbott regained the lead for the Black Bears just 4:39 into the second period. Kyle Solomon fed the puck to Abbott, who let go a snap shot from inside the slot.

“The goalie was leaning over,” said Spencer Abbott. “I had a wide open net.”

Providence wasn’t going down without a fight, but Maine’s goalie Scott Darling made 13 of his 25 saves in the final period.

“They came out firing in the third period,” Scott Darling said. “There are no easy games in Hockey East, every time has so much skill and talent, Providence is no different.”

Army saw missed opportunities in the third period.

“In the third, we made a couple settle changes to change things up,” he said. “I thought we had good play, forced some turnovers and better activity around of the net. We weren’t able to get it done on the powerplay like last night.”

Gustav Nyquist added his 11th of the season with an empty net power play goal with 29 seconds remaining in the game.

Maine was 2-for-4 on the power play. Providence went 1-for-5.