The University of Maine men’s hockey team scored a pair of power play goals to snap an 0-for-29 drought, but it wasn’t enough.
The University of Connecticut got a power play goal from sophomore left wing Jake Richard with 40 seconds left in overtime to beat the Black Bears 3-2 at the Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs, Conn. on Friday night.
Eleventh-ranked UConn improved to 17-10-3 overall and 9-8-3 in Hockey East while fourth-ranked UMaine fell to 19-6-5 and 11-4-5, respectively.
UConn has now won three in a row while UMaine had its seven-game unbeaten streak snapped (4-0-3).
UConn has two wins and a tie vs. UMaine this season.
UConn earned two Hockey East points while the Black Bears picked up one.
UMaine’s Taylor Makar was assessed a holding penalty at the 2:55 mark of the five-minute overtime and the Huskies capitalized on the four-on-three power play.
Trey Scott took a shot from the middle of the low slot and UMaine goalie Albin Boija made the save. But the rebound spilled to the bottom of the faceoff circle to Boija’s right and Richard calmly wristed it past Boija for his 10th goal of the season and second of the game.
Boija had stopped a Richard penalty shot earlier in the game.
Freshman right wing Kaden Shahan opened the scoring for the Huskies at the 5:47 mark of the first period by swatting home a rebound off assists from John Spetz and Viking Gustafsson Nyberg but senior center Nolan Renwick answered on the power play by tipping Frank Djurasevic’s wrist shot from the midpoint past UConn goalie Callum Tung.
It was the eighth goal of the season for both Shahan and Renwick.
Josh Nadeau also picked up an assist on the Renwick goal.
Richard made it 2-1 in the second period by directing the puck past Boija from the far post after Ryan Tattle wristed the puck across the low slot. But UMaine junior center Owen Fowler tied it when he wristed a one-timer past Tung from the inner half of the right faceoff circle off a pass from Sully Scholle. It was Fowler’s seventh of the season.
Tung finished with 32 saves to earn the win while Boija turned aside a season-high 42 shots including 18 in the third period when the Black Bears were outshot 18-7.
“We were very average,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “We had a great power play and Albin played well. They’re a very aggressive team and we had some puck panic. There wasn’t a lot of pushback from some of our guys and that was disappointing.”
UMaine graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen returned to the lineup for the first time since breaking his fibula in a game at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Nov. 30.
Breen didn’t pick up a point but was credited with three shots on goal.
Breen hit the post with a shot in overtime.
“He looked good. He had a lot of jump. He made some plays,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr.
UMaine will host Vermont on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m. It will be the last two regular season home games and the seniors will be honored on Saturday night. The Catamounts are 11-15-3 overall and 6-11-2 in league play.
UConn will entertain Boston University (17-12-1, 11-8-1) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
