After Maryland’s 4-2 win on Friday night over the Maine Nordiques, the two teams took the ice with first place in the East Division on the line. The Nordiques sat at first place entering Saturday’s contest with 52 points with the Black Bears behind them in second place with 51 points. It was another hard-hitting contest with Maryland coming out on top 4-0 with goaltender Owen Lepak recording his third shutout of the season.

The Black Bears started the scoring with a tip-in goal on the power play from forward Samuel Stitz, who positioned himself in the slot and redirected a point shot from forward and captain of the Black Bears Dimitry Kebreau to make it 1-0. Then just over two minutes later, Maryland defenseman Cal Huston got the puck off of a face-off and tossed it on goal, where it was redirected in the slot by forward Riley Ruh over the pad of Maine goalie Carter Richardson to make it 2-0.

The Black Bears continued the scoring in the second period when forward Luke Janus took the puck in on a two-on-one rush and passed the puck from the far to the near side to forward Ryder Neinhuis who chipped the puck over the pad of Richardson and into the net for a 3-0 lead. Janus capped off the scoring with a wrist shot goal in the third period from the top of the near circle off the crossbar and in for a 4-0 final score. Lepak recorded 24 saves in the shutout win to propel Maryland into first place in the East Division.

The Black Bears hit the road for four straight games over the next two weekends. Maryland will visit the Northeast Generals on January 12th and 13th and the Philadelphia Rebels on January 19th and 20th. The Black Bears return home to Piney Orchard Ice Arena on January 26th and 27th against the New Jersey Titans. All games can be streamed on NAHLTV.