ORONO – Sophomore Brian Flynn didn’t eat anything remarkable or do anything out of the ordinary Friday morning.

He didn’t change his pregame routine, and he didn’t turn to alchemy to jump-start his offensive production.

Instead, Flynn did the dirty work Friday night, and the University of Maine hockey team followed his scorching pace.

Flynn scored five goals in the Black Bears’ 8-4 win over UMass-Lowell, set a school record with seven points in a game and tied a school record with five goals in a game.

”It was just one of those days where everything was kind of going my way,” said Flynn, who helped the Black Bears build on a one-goal lead entering the third period. ”We weren’t happy with how we played last weekend (against Boston University) and we think we kind of slowed down a bit, and it was good to pick things back up.”

Right wing Gustav Nyquist — whose goal and four assists were overshadowed by Flynn — added some perspective to Flynn’s feat.

”Five goals, that’s probably more than most guys score in a year in college hockey,” Nyquist said. ”He’s a goal-scorer and he knows where to be. He kind of hung out in front of the net and the puck, it pretty much came right out to him. He did a great job burying those rebounds.”

Flynn got all five of his goals on shots in front of the crease, either picking up rebounds or redirecting shots that came within his reach.

”That’s how probably 80 percent of the goals are scored in this league, even if you go higher at the next level, too,” Flynn said. ”But you’ve got to find a way to bang those in, too.”

Flynn became the first Black Bear in more than 23 years to score five goals in a game. Jay Mazur scored five on Feb. 7, 1987, in a 9-2 win against UMass-Lowell.

”From the very beginning, pucks were gravitating towards him,” UMass-Lowell Coach Blaise MacDonald said. ”He got some fortunate bounces but, most importantly, he was able to make the most of his bounces.”

Flynn also became the second Hockey East player to score five goals in a game this season. Merrimack’s Stephane Da Costa scored five in a 6-3 win Oct. 17 against Army.

”With all the elite players we’ve had at Maine, we don’t have the 100 years of hockey tradition like BU or BC, but to have that, I’m surprised we haven’t had seven points,” Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said.

Flynn was one of four goal scorers for Maine (15-11-3, 12-8-2 Hockey East), ranked No. 15 in both national polls.

Flynn scored his first two goals in the first 13 minutes, and gave Maine a 4-1 lead at 3:35 of the second before UMass-Lowell (15-14-2, 9-11-2) cut the lead to 4-3 on second-period goals by Colin Wright and Ben Holmstrom.

Flynn scored his fourth goal 47 seconds into the third when the puck banked off his skate as he attempted to shoot and past UMass-Lowell goalie Carter Hutton (13 saves).

”We’re up 4-1 and not real pleased to be scored on twice,” Nyquist said. ”I think we scored in the second shift of the third period and that was huge for us. That gave us a lot of momentum and we just kept going.”

 

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:

rlenzi@pressherald.com