ORONO, Maine — For the second time in three games, the University of Maine’s fifth-ranked Black Bears earned a tie with an extra-attacker goal.
The Black Bears were completely smothered by the University of New Hampshire’s relentless Wildcats, who outworked the Black Bears and held them to a paltry nine shots on goal through the first 50 minutes.
But senior center Harrison Scott’s tip-in goal with 43 seconds remaining stole a 1-1 tie at a sold-out Alfond Arena in Orono on Friday night.
UMaine is now 18-5-5 overall and 10-3-5 in Hockey East while UNH, which had lost eight of its previous nine, is now 11-12-4 and 3-11-3.
UMaine extended its unbeaten streak to six games (3-0-3).
The two teams will conclude their series on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Following a scoreless overtime, UMaine picked up the extra Hockey East point with a 2-0 shootout win as Sully Scholle and Scott beat UNH goalie Jared Whale while UMaine sophomore goalie Albin Boija stopped both UNH shots.
It was Scholle’s third shootout goal of the season.
Scott, whose goal was his team-leading 16th of the year and snapped a seven-game goalless drought, said right before his goal he was considering heading to the bench on a line change.
“My body was telling me I wanted to get off but my mind said I’m staying on, I’m going to find a way and just go stand at the net front. And Dave [Breazeale] found me right in front. It was a great tip,” said Scott. “I think it went under the goalie’s arm to the other side. Dave finding my stick there was huge.”
“I was just trying to get it down to the net,” said senior defenseman and co-captain Breazeale. “We aren’t having much luck scoring. So you have to just put pucks down there and [Scott] did a great job getting to the net, getting his stick on it and he was able to put it in the back of the net.”
Senior left wing Taylor Makar also picked up an assist.
UMaine junior defenseman almost won it in regulation but his shot hit the post.
It was UMaine’s third exta-attacker goal this season as Makar earned a 3-3 tie at Providence last weekend and Holt scored one against Quinnipiac which set the stage for Breazeale’s overtime game-winner.
UNH senior center Conor Lovett had given the Wildcats a well-deserved 1-0 lead on the power play 3:11 into the third period.
Connor Sweeney gave him a nifty pass from the corner to Boija’s right and Lovett took a couple of quick strides before roofing a 10-foot wrister into the far corner past Boija, who had dropped down to his knees.
It was his fourth goal of the season.
Kristaps Skrastins also notched an assist.
Both teams had good chances in the three-on-three, five-minute overtime but Boija stopped all five shots he faced and Whale stopped four shots.
Boija finished with 23 saves and Whale wound up with 17.
High-percentage scoring chances were few and far between with UNH having a decided edge in offensive zone possession.
The Black Bears were rarely able to establish their forecheck as the Wildcats efficiently moved the puck out of their zone with crisp break-out passes and simple aerial flips.
“We’re just getting outcompeted right now by everyone we’re playing,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr, whose Black Bears have now scored only 25 goals in their last 12 games with two being empty-netters.
“It’s not sustainable hockey,” added Barr. “It’s not that we’re not working hard, it’s just a detail thing. It’s too much to finish your hit when we turn the puck over in the neutral zone. It’s easier just to loop away from it and hope it comes back to you and you get a breakaway which you aren’t going to get right now.”
“It’s bad hockey,” Barr added. “The good news is we have a resilient bunch. Albin makes the saves he needs to make to keep us in it and we get one at the end.”
“It doesn’t really feel like we deserve [the two points],” said Breazeale. “We want to play better than that. We want to dominate teams and we got dominated for part of that game and that isn’t our identity. We got to get back and find that.”
“We played one of our best games of the year,” said UNH coach Mike Souza. “This one stings a little just because of the timing of it but I was proud of our kids. They played hard, they played the right way.
“It’s a credit to Ben and his team for having the ability to stay with it. That’s why they’re a top 10 team,” Souza added.
Breazeale said he is proud of the fight the Black Bears have shown through adversity in the last three games, saying it’s “awesome” for them to find a way to come back.
“We’ve got to be grateful for the two points and we’ll give them our best tomorrow night. We’ll learn from it,” Breazeale said.
