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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team played its first game in 22 days in the Midwest Regional Semifinal of NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament Saturday. The second-seeded Black Bears had the misfortune of drawing the host school of the Midwest Regional, the University of Michigan, in the first round.
UMaine(24-10-5) fought hard and played one of its best overall games of the year, but in the end, it was still not enough to beat the home-standing Wolverines, as Michigan took the 2-1 win at Yost Ice Arena due to a power play goal by senior captain Jed Ortmeyer with just 1:31 left in the game.
“It was a hard fought game,” UMaine coach Tim Whitehead said in the postgame press conference. “It was a battle right to the end. We’re real proud of our players and how hard they competed and how they came to play today. We certainly have to give credit to Michigan for a great win.”
Michigan coach Red Berenson said he was very impressed with the Black Bears after the game.
“I think the [22-day layoff] helped [UMaine],” Berenson said. “I thought they had the legs more in the second half of the game than we did. They started to take over. I think home ice was a factor. The [fan support] was unbelievable.”
UMaine ended up out-shooting Michigan for the game, but the difference was Wolverine freshman Al Montoya, who made 34 saves in the game, including many shots through traffic in the third period.
“I just focused on making the stops that I had to make,” Montoya said. “I knew our team would come through in the end. I didn’t really worry about the shots. I just wanted to stay composed.”
The first two periods of the game went scoreless, but that appeared to change just 1:30 into the third period. Robert Liscak got a breakaway for UMaine after splitting the Michigan defense. He deked to his forehand and Montoya dropped to the ice. Liscak then moved the puck around him and appeared to fire the puck into the open net, but the referee ruled that the puck had hit the post and stayed out. The game remained scoreless.
UMaine got its third power play opportunity of the game at the 4:44 mark of the third, thanks to a Brandon Rogers tripping penalty. UMaine got its three best scoring chances to that point of the game within 30 seconds of each other on that power play, but Montoya stopped all three shots.
Michigan killed the penalty and took the immediate advantage. Eric Nystrom skated the puck out of the zone and attempted to get a breakaway as the penalty expired. He was hit in the slot by both UMaine defensemen and lost possession, but Michael Woodford, trailing the play, moved around the pileup in front and took a shot from the right face-off circle.
UMaine goalie Frank Doyle sprawled and made a quick save, but Nystrom broke free from the fray to find the rebound and score at 6:47 to give the Wolverines the lead, to the delight of most of the 6,798 fans on hand.
UMaine was gaining momentum through the last half of the period, and finally appeared to grab a firm hold of it when one of the team’s snipers scored his first goal in three and a half months.
Lucas Lawson sent a pass to Martin Kariya, to lead to a two-on-two rush down the ice. Kariya went to the right side, leaving junior Colin Shields to cut to the net. Shields beat his man, and Kariya centered the puck. Shields just redirected it on his backhand toward the net and, though Montoya got a piece of the shot, which trickled in to tie the game 1-1 with just 3:54 left in regulation.
“It was a big relief for us to get on the board,” Shields said. “[Montoya] had been playing really well.”
It wasn’t long before Michigan nabbed the momentum back. With just 2:02 left, a Michigan forward made a cut to the net with the puck. UMaine freshman defenseman Travis Wight hauled him down, forcing referee Derek Shepherd to call a holding penalty and give the Wolverines the deciding power play.
Whitehead said he was not upset with the penalty call.
“There were calls both ways and we had our opportunities, just like they did,” Whitehead said. “Both teams worked very hard to win that game, but they came up with one more than us. That’s just the way it is.”
On the ensuing power play, a centering feed by Jeff Tambellini hit the skate of a UMaine player on its way to the goal, and bounced right to Ortmeyer, who put it in.
“I felt like I owed our team a goal,” Ortmeyer said. “The shot was there, and I just took the shot.”
“It’s disappointing,” Doyle said. “We had two blocked shots right before that. It was a shot from the right side. It hit something and just bounced right to him.”
