DANBURY, CT– Ending their four weekend road trip, the Maryland Black Bears headed to Danbury to take on the Hat Tricks in two matinee match-ups. After a tough loss on Friday, the Black Bears got the quick start they’d been looking for to help secure the weekend split.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6th, 2026: BLACK BEARS (1) at Danbury (2): It was a feeling out period to start the matinee match-up, as an exchange of icings paced the game. Maryland had to kill off an early penalty, but were able to get their offense going towards the middle of the frame. While the Black Bears had quality chances, they would go into the first intermission scoreless with Danbury.
Danbury started to use their forecheck against Maryland to success with the Black Bears unable to get out of their zone in the first part of the frame, allowing Danbury to catch up in shots. Maryland did have a bit of sustained pressure after the media timeout, but were unable to find the back of the net. Later in the frame, Danbury would open up the scoring on the power play with Gus Rabe ending a give-and-go play at the side of the net to make 1-0. The Black Bears were stymied in the rest of the frame, heading into the intermission down by a goal.
The Black Bears were sniffing for the equalizer and started to press the Danbury net. All the work would pay off with Will Schlechtweg using the forecheck to create a turnover behind the net and tucked it in for his fourth of the season to even the score. However, Danbury would regain the lead with Brent Beswick redirecting a point shot to make it 2-1 for Danbury only 40 seconds after Maryland tied it. While Maryland tried to get some kind of action going, they couldn’t find the equalizer and fell 2-1. Cole Werthman made 26 saves.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7th, 2026: BLACK BEARS (7) at Danbury (2): The Black Bears got off to a hot start with the forecheck establishing itself quickly and Dom Mack sliding to the slot to make it a 1-0 score for Maryland on 53 seconds later. Then, on their first power play, Joe Gasperko would make it 2-0 picking up the puck at the side of the net to score only 45 seconds after the first goal. Only 42 seconds after that, Brayden Wade would get into the mix, sliding down from the point-coverage to snap home the 3-0 goal for Maryland. After Danbury called timeout and had a power play– which Maryland killed– Maryland went back on the attack. With 6:37 left, Gasperko would get his second of the game, batting home a rebound that popped-up in front to make it 4-0 for the Black Bears. Danbury would get one back late in the frame with Johnny Niemela getting his own rebound in front to make it 4-1 ahead of the intermission.
The Black Bears got off to another quick start, with Lucas Salvatore redirecting a Will Schlechtweg shot-pass into the back of the net to make it 5-1 only 1:23 into the middle stanza. Maryland would continue to press, using their forecheck to their advantage to create plenty of offense for themselves. Salvatore would strike again at the middle of the frame from a nice centering feed by Schlechtweg to make it 6-1 for the Black Bears. Maryland continued their zone time, but couldn’t find additional goals before the intermission.
Danbury would get one back early in the third with John Donohue scoring in the first three minutes to make it a 6-2 scoreline. The Black Bears kept on digging, keeping to their system that had worked for the first 40 minutes. That pressure helped late, when Will Schlechtweg was able to put home a rebound for his fifth of the season to make it 7-2, the eventual final. Michael Iliff made 26 saves.
The Black Bears are back home on Tuesday morning against Philadelphia and on the weekend against New Hampshire. Tickets available at Tickets.MarylandBlackBears.com and the Piney Orchard box office.
