The men’s hockey team fell to Maine twice on Dec. 2 and 3 in two high-scoring contests at Gutterson. The first loss was 6-4 and the second was 5-2.

After the weekend series, Maine improved their record to 6-6-2 overall while the Catamounts fell to 3-10-0.

In Friday night’s game, Maine’s Spencer Abbott recorded a hat trick as Maine came from behind in the third period to defeat the Cats.

The Catamounts were leading 3-2 heading into the final frame but couldn’t sustain the lead.

“We were in complete control of that hockey game, I couldn’t be any more disappointed,” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “I thought we did a great job 5-on-5. It’s a shame because I thought we were controlling the play very well in the third period.”

Sneddon seemed to know the cause of Vermont’s third period woes.

“I’m very disappointed in our special teams play and certainly disappointed to let our personal emotions over play get the better of us,” Sneddon said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Maine, but we gave the two points away tonight in my opinion.”

Vermont didn’t manage to muster any goals until the third period of Saturday’s game, as Maine dominated the scoring for the majority of the contest.

“I think Maine did a lot of the little things that we did [Friday] night, like winning puck battles and playing tough in their own zone,” Sneddon said. “We had a lot of puck possession but we didn’t have a lot of great looks like we did Friday. I have to tip my hat to Maine — I thought they played a lot hungrier than we did, and I just told our guys we can’t expect to make that many mistakes in a hockey game and have any sort of success.”

Senior goaltender John Vazzano made his first career start for the Catamounts in the game.

Sophomore Connor Brickley scored a short-handed goal at 5:45 of the third period to tally Vermont’s first goal of the game. Graduate student Brett Bruneteau was credited with the assist on the goal.

Bruneteau scored a goal of his own at 19:33, this time with Brickley adding the assist.

The Catamounts will travel to Merrimack on Dec. 7 for a mid-week game. There are just three games left before the annual Catamount Cup Tournament at Gutterson Fieldhouse.