Orono, ME – Saturday was Senior Night in Orono and the seniors came out to play as the four of the five seniors contributed to the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team, 7-1, beatdown of Merrimack College in front of 4,854 at Alfond Arena on Saturday night.

Jeff Dimmen, with two goals and an assist on the night, couldn’t have been more satisfied with the outcome of the game.

“We wanted to leave here with a good taste in our mouths and it was a really fun way to go out with all the seniors stepping up huge,” he said.

The Black Bears needed only 2:20 to find the back of the net in the first period.

Joey Diamond gathered a loose puck from behind the Merrimack goal. After failing to find an opening to shoot at, the sophomore forward passed the puck out to a wide open Mark Nemec.

Nemec received the puck and then fired a laser beam of a shot from just below the blue line and sailed it over the glove of Joe Cannata to give Maine an early 1-0 lead.

Maine spent the rest of the period sending the puck deep and pressuring the Warrior defense.

While keeping the Warriors on their toes, the Black Bear defense managed to contain the high flying Merrimack offense.

After one period of play, Maine maintained the 1-0 lead and, in doing so, goaltender Dan Sullivan broke the Black Bear scoreless streak record previously held by former Maine netminder Jimmy Howard, who is currently playing with the Detroit Red Wings.

“Jimmy Howard is one of my idols and to break one of his records, it’s great,” said Sullivan. “Without the support my team’s been giving me this would not have been possible.”

The Black Bears scored the first goal of the second period with only 41 seconds coming of the clock.

In the Warrior zone, Gustav Nyquist picked up the puck off the boards and sent it toward the front of the net to Brian Flynn. Flynn hammered a one-timer over the glove Cannata lifting Maine to a 2-0 lead.

With the Black Bears completely controlling the momentum of the game, they continued to keep the intensity high as they scored a third goal against the overwhelmed Warriors.

It took less than a minute for the Black Bears to find themselves on a power play advantage.

Kyle Beattie found Jeff Dimmen in the right circle and passed him the puck. Dimmen then launched a slap shot to beat the Warriors netminder through his five hole.

But Merrimack wasn’t going to let Maine walk all over them and they answered with a goal of their own before the three minute mark.

Warriors’ Jeff Velleca was able to beat the red hot Dan Sullivan with a wrap around open mouth goal. The freshman goalkeeper was blasted with multiple shots and was able to block them all until he eventually lost sight of the puck to give up his first goal in 10 consecutive periods.

Despite the Merrimack goal, the Black Bears weren’t going to let them climb back into the game.

For the second straight night, Josh Van Dyk found the back of the net with a power play goal.

The senior defensemen received the pass from Jeff Dimmen and then fired the puck near the blue line to beat Cannata for the 4-1 goal.

Black Bear Kyle Beattie scored his team’s fifth goal of the night by collecting a loose puck in front of the net and flipping it over Cannata going ahead 5-1 toward the end of the period.

Maine ended the second period with a commanding 5-1 lead over the highly ranked Merrimack Warriors.

“We didn’t play up to our capability,” said Cannata. “They had some guys working hard at times, but we have to go back to work this week and try again.”

The third period began and Maine wasn’t done with Merrimack quite yet.

On another power play, Gustav Nyquist drove toward the net with the puck. Merrimack’s back-up goaltender Sam Marotta came out of the net to challenge the play. Nyquist protected the puck skirting around Marotta and one-handedly swung the puck by him for the 6-1 goal.

Once again, Josh Van Dyk and Jeff Dimmen hooked-up again. This time it was a pass from Van Dyk to Dimmen who then slapped the seventh Maine goal of the night into the back of the net on another Black Bear power play.

The Dimmen goal was the last one of the night, but it capped off a stellar performance by the Black Bears. With a 7-1 victory over the Merrimack Warriors, it was a storybook ending to close out the Black Bear senior night and the last home game of the season as they found vengeance against Merrimack for the 7-1 beating they endured earlier in the season.