Senior left wing Taylor Makar extended his goal-scoring streak to four games by scoring a pair of third-period goals, including one to tie the score with 2:04 remaining, as the fifth-ranked University of Maine hockey team earned a 3-3 tie with seventh-ranked Providence College at Schneider Arena on Friday night.
UMaine is now 17-5-4 overall and 9-3-4 in Hockey East while Providence is 16-6-5 and 6-5-5.
The teams will conclude the series on Saturday at 6 p.m.
UMaine, which overcame three one-goal deficits Friday night, earned the extra Hockey East point by winning the shootout 1-0 on sophomore Sully Scholle’s goal.
Makar’s tying goal came after UMaine head coach Ben Barr had pulled goalie Albin Boija in favor of an extra attacker.
Charlie Russell fed a pass to David Breazeale at the point and his one-timer was kicked out by Friars goalie Phillip Svedeback.
However, the rebound came right to Makar, who was camped out in the faceoff circle to Svedeback’s left, and he wristed it past Svedeback into the upper short side corner.
The Black Bears outshot Providence 7-1 in the five-minute, three-on-three overtime. But they couldn’t put the puck past Svedeback, which resulted in a shootout.
Neither team scored in the three-man shootout so it went to sudden death and Scholle carried the puck from left to right just outside the crease before flipping a backhander over Svedeback’s left pad.
Logan Will had a chance to extend the shootout but Boija made a blocker save to earn the extra point.
Sophomore Boija made 29 saves through regulation and the overtime and junior Svedeback finished with 27.
Senior defenseman Guillaume Richard staked the Friars to a 1-0 lead just 2:33 into the game with a shot from the tight angle to Boija’s right. It was his first goal of the season. Then UMaine sophomore defenseman Frank Djurasevic tied it with his sixth at the 19:33 mark by shoveling home a backhander off a Harrison Scott rebound.
Sophomore right wing Graham Gamache supplied the Friars with a 2-1 lead in the second period with a nifty move off a rebound for his ninth of the campaign, but Makar tied it in the third period with a shorthanded goal off a breakaway. That was his career-high 11th of the year.
Providence Sophomore center Hudson Malinoski restored the lead on the power play with 7:30 left with a wrist shot from the faceoff dot to the left of Boija. It was his fourth goal in two games and eighth of the season.
But UMass transfer Makar answered with his 12th goal for the season and his sixth over the last four games.
“(Makar) has been playing fantastic hockey,” said Barr. “We’re lucky he’s finding a way to put it in the net right now.”
Barr said his team’s performance left a lot to be desired.
“It was ugly. The first period was fine. The second period was really bad. It was one of our worst periods of the year. Credit to them. They’re really good and they outworked us,” said Barr.
“But we had some guys step up in the third period and overtime,” added Barr.
