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The Northern Maine Pioneers opened their weekend with a high-energy matchup Friday night at home against the Connecticut Chiefs, who came in hungry for a win. The Chiefs struck first, but the Pioneers didn’t waste any time answering back. At 3:05, #9 Heron set up #14 Maro for the tying goal, sending the teams into the first intermission knotted 1–1.
Early in the second, #24 Hughes found #33 Elkins to give the Pioneers a 2–1 lead, but the Chiefs quickly responded to tie things at 2–2. The Pioneers pushed again when #18 Jarvis connected with #33 Levins, who set up #34 Gough for another go-ahead goal at 28:30. The momentum didn’t last long, though, as the Chiefs answered once more to make it 3–3 after two periods. The third period belonged to Connecticut, who scored three goals while the Pioneers couldn’t find the back of the net again. Despite the loss, #1 Murat Shiyanov had a strong night in goal, facing an incredible 55 shots and making 49 saves for a .907 save percentage. The game ended 6–3.
Saturday brought another intense matchup as the St. Stephen Moose came to the Forum. With some leftover tension from their last meeting, both the team and the crowd were ready for a big night. After giving up two goals in the first, the Pioneers came out flying in the second period and completely turned the game around. Just 38 seconds in, #18 Jarvis set up #33 Levins to get the Pioneers on the board. Less than a minute later, #8 G. Matushak found his twin brother #7 K. Matushak to tie it up, and only 11 seconds after that, the brothers connected again, this time K. Matushak feeding #16 Adams for the go-ahead goal. In under two minutes, the Pioneers jumped from a 0–2 deficit to a 3–2 lead.
The scoring rush continued. At 24:47, Adams returned the favor by finding G. Matushak, who passed to K. Matushak for another goal. Just a few minutes later at 28:29, G. Matushak set up Jarvis, who fed K. Matushak again to complete an unbelievable second-period hat trick. In total, the Pioneers scored five goals in under nine minutes to take a 5–2 lead, while the Moose struggled to keep up. St. Stephen added one in the third, but with five seconds left, Adams fired the puck from across the ice into an open net to seal the 6–3 win. #35 Julius Kolari was solid between the pipes with 47 saves (0.940 save percentage), and the Matushak twins were the story of the night; G. Matushak assisting on all three of his brother’s goals.
The Pioneers will face the Moose again at home this Saturday at 6:15 p.m., before heading to St. Stephen on Sunday for a 7 p.m. matchup on the road.