Maine Stops Calgary for Freeze-Out Title

No. 1-ranked Maine controlled the puck with superior skating, stick-handling and passing for a 5-0 victory over Calgary in the Great Western Freeze-Out championship game Friday night at the Forum.

The Black Bears (13-1) outshot Calgary, 16-2, in the second period and 42-11 overall.

The Dinosaurs, ranked No. 8 in Canada, couldn’t hold onto the puck long enough against Maine’s quick checking to muster an offense.

Calgary goaltender Jeff Ferguson made some acrobatic saves to stop the margin from being higher. He finished the night with 37 saves.

Maine converted its first power play on a shot by Jean Yves-Roy, a junior from Rosemere, Canada, at 2:40 of the first period.

On a two-on-one breakaway, Roy passed off to Martin Robitaille who returned the puck immediately with a feed right on Roy’s stick.

The Black Bears made it 2-0 when Robitaille controlled the rebound off Randy Olson’s shot and slid the puck in front of the crease to the hard-charging Olson, who scored at 8:55 of the opening period.

Jim Montgomery put on a skating exhibition in scoring the Black Bears’ third goal.

On a line change, Montgomery came off the bench at full speed, gathered the puck before the red line, skated around a Calgary defenseman at the right circle and crossed in front of the net, faking out Ferguson and depositing the puck in the left corner of the net as he skated by.

It was the second power-play goal of the game for Maine.

Roy scored again at 13:02 of the final period for his 13th goal of the season.

On Maine’s fifth goal, a power play at 16:52 of the last period, Roy assisted Scott Pellerin.

In the consolation game, Michigan State scored five goals in the third period to beat Waterloo, 9-4.

The Spartans’ Dwayne Norris had a hat trick and an assist, and Rob Woodward scored two goals and assisted on two others.