Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
University of Maine defenseman Peter Metcalf scored with 1:33 remaining in overtime to give the Black Bears a 3-2 victory over New Hampshire at Alfond Arena.
“I shot it and it came right back to me,” Metcalf said of the winning goal. “Clausen (Kevin) chipped it but there was a lot of traffic and the guy in front of me laid his stick down so I went high.” Metcalf’s wrist shot beat Wildcat goaltender Ty Conklin (32 saves) below the glove to the short side.
“There were a lot of bodies (in front),” Conklin said.
The game went into overtime courtesy of Black Bear forward Chris Heisten. Heisten’s second goal of the night at the 10:33 mark of the third period tied the score at two.
“That play was all Lawson (Lucas),” Heisten said. “He left me a little drop in perfect position. I just went high with a wrist shot.” The tally was Heisten’s fourth of the season.
“I thought we played a relentless game,” Maine head coach Shawn Walsh said. “We kept coming and in the second and third period, we really played well.”
New Hampshire head coach Dick Umile agreed. “You’ve got to give Maine credit,” Umile said. “We played well, they just kept after us the whole night.”
Coming into the contest, the Black Bears were 0-7-1 when trailing after two periods and had not won an overtime contest all year.
Despite dominating the second period, Maine went into the second intermission trailing 2-1.
Darren Haydar put the visitors on top at 5:48 of the first period. The UNH junior camped on the left side of the Maine net, took a feed from Colin Hemingway from behind the net and beat Matt Yeats (19 saves) through the pads.
“He had a few whacks at it,” Yeats said. “He just kept shooting and he finally found the five-hole.”
The second period began with promise for Maine. Heisten knotted the score at one just three minutes in, following up a Brendan Donovan attempt in front.
Heisten took a Niko Dimitrakos feed in the left circle and flipped a perfect pass to the far side of the net to a waiting Brendan Donovan. Donovan’s attempt was stuffed by Conklin.
“I just followed the pass,” Heisten said. “The puck was just sitting there and I flipped it high.” Heisten’s flip in a maze of players found its way over Conklin’s blocker to tie the score.
But with just over two minutes remaining in the period, Hemingway made an outstanding individual play to give UNH its second lead of the night.
“Metcalf flipped it around the boards,” Hemingway said. “Josh Prudden and Jim Abbott did a good job keeping people occupied.” Hemingway took a tip pass from Abbott, skated out of the corner, deeked Maine defenseman Francis Nault and beat Yeats high to the glove side.
“We were a little disappointed with the way the second period turned out,” Walsh said. “They only had one legitimate opportunity to score and Hemingway made a great play.”
The Black Bears pointed to a raucous sellout crowd as fuel for their third period rally.
“The crowd was really into it,” Metcalf said. “They got us going.” sophomore Martin Kariya agreed. “We just played badly last weekend at BC,” Kariya said . “They knew that, but they were loyal and helped us win.”
“This win is huge for us,” Dimitrakos said . “Coming down to the last eight games and we can feed off this during the final stretch.”
Bangor Daily News