ORONO — Andrea Shore and Sue Swavely sang two national anthems before Saturday’s UMaine hockey game.
Their sons were in perfect harmony as well.
Devin Shore scored two goals and added a pair of assists, and Steven Swavely had three assists as the Black Bears rolled to a 6-3 victory over Northeastern in front of an announced crowd of 3,786 at Alfond Arena.
The third member of their line, freshman Nolan Vesey, upstaged them both, recording the first hat trick for Maine since Matt Mangene did so in 2012.
“It’s always in the back of your head when you get two, but you just want to win the game and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to make a play on that last one,” said Vesey, who has 10 goals.
His last one gave Maine a 5-2 lead and came when he expertly redirected a Swavely shot from the slot, lifting it above Northeastern goaltender Derick Roy’s glove despite having his back to the net.
“Any time a player on your team gets a hat trick, that means you’ve got a good chance to win, so he played great tonight,” Shore said. “He’s got a really quick stick around the net and a great finishing touch, so he’s very deserving of his hat trick, and it’s that much better that it came in a win.”
It was a needed win for Maine (13-18-3, 8-10-2 Hockey East), which moved into sole possession of eighth place in the league standings one night after falling apart in a 6-4 loss to the Huskies. It also snapped a seven-game winning streak for Northeastern (15-12-4, 10-8-2).
And it came on Senior Night, when Andrew Cerretani, Stu Higgins, Connor Leen and Jake Rutt played their final regular-season game at the Alfond. That was the occasion for the elder Shore and Swavely to harmonize on “O Canada” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Maine Coach Red Gendron also used the occasion to reunite Swavely on the top line with Shore and Vesey. Swavely is so valuable that he is often needed to center his own line.
“I think he’s one of if not the most underrated players in Hockey East,” Shore raved. “He rarely loses puck battles, he’s so responsible in his own end, he has offensive ability, hockey sense, he has it all in a big package. So he means a lot to the line. He’s kind of the glue that holds it together.”
Shore assisted on Vesey’s first two goals, helping the Black Bears get on the board 3:34 into the first period when he took a Dan Renouf pass to the right of Roy, stared him down and then slid it to an open Vesey to his right for a tap-in.
“That was kind of just a bang-bang play and you don’t know what you’re doing in the moment. It just happens,” Shore said of passing on an open shot.
Shore, Maine’s junior captain, scored in the second period with a rare slap shot from the blue line that whistled past Roy’s blocker. He concluded the evening with an empty-net goal and now has 102 points in his Maine career.
“I’ve never been a big points guy, but it’s cool to share that with this crowd and do it at home,” he said.
But Shore was more than happy to be outshone by Vesey and the seniors, and even his mother.
Mark Emmert can be contacted at 791-6424 or:
memmert@pressherald.com
Twitter: MarkEmmertPPH
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