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ORONO – With Halloween looming and a devilish storm brewing outside, the No. 1 University of Maine men’s hockey squad received a mighty scare from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Saturday night before escaping with a tenacious 4-1 victory.
Behind a remarkable tally by defenseman Bret Tyler, the Black Bears managed to remain unbeaten and collect their first Hockey East points of the season after overcoming both an upset-minded Minuteman squad and a power outage that left a quarter of the arena in the dark for more than 25 minutes.
“Hey, Halloween is right around the corner and the wind was howling outside,” UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead said. “I mean we have the lights going out, the crowd is doing the wave, the players jump in on the wave – we had a little bit of everything [Saturday]. Fortunately, we were able to send the crowd home happy.”
The win improved UMaine to a sparkling 6-0-0 on the year, while UMass watched their perfect mark slide to 2-1-1.
“This was a great indication of how tough it is going to be in the league this year,” Whitehead said. “I was very impressed with their club in every aspect of the game. We are pleased to come out with two points.”
After watching UMass trick-or-treat all night in the UMaine defensive zone, Tyler put the Black Bears up for good and broke a 1-1 stalemate when he snatched a misfired pass from junior Billy Ryan at the top of the point. Racing past a pair of Minutemen defenders, Tyler proceeded to zoom behind the back of goalie John Quick’s net for a wraparound tally that he sent through Quick’s five-hole.
“I was coming off the bench and Billy looked like Alexander Ovechkin there by feathering it through the [defenseman's] legs and somehow it found its way on to my stick,” said Tyler. “You know, I just wrapped around the right and looked for a guy to dish it to. But there was no one open. Quick kind of stood up and left a little room in the five hole. Luckily I got to squeeze it through there.”
On the eventual game-winner, which came with just 4:36 remaining in the contest, Tyler waited a near nanosecond before rifling off a low-laying wrist shot.
Tyler’s late game heroics didn’t come as a surprise. The aggressive defenseman has already racked up seven points, though Saturday’s game-winner was his first goal of the young season.
“I’m not the biggest guy or strongest guy in the league for a defenseman,” Tyler said. “I contribute more offensively. Any way I can help my team offensively I like to do it. I love having the puck on my stick. That’s what I do. A lot of guys are defenseman-defenseman but I just don’t fit that role. It’s not the way I am. Any time I can help the team offensively late in the game, I love to do it.”
“He’s clutch for us,” added captain Michel Leveille. “He said he was going to get it back for us and he did. He keeps his promises. He’s been playing well for us. He always seems to get the big goals at the right time and that is what we need.”
Whitehead said he has come to expect that type of awareness from the Massachusetts native.
“Bret has such great instincts for the game,” Whitehead said. “He’s a guy that can make a play in a tight area, under pressure. I thought he had exceptional game not just because he scored, but he was getting pucks through from the point. He really has great hand-eye coordination and a great knack for reading the play.”
The Black Bears avoided any chance of catching the recent upset bug that has been plaguing the college hockey world. Buoyed by their newfound 2-1 advantage, UMaine’s defense clamped down on the Minutemen and slowed down the first line attack of Matt Anderson, Chris Davis and Mark Matheson. Throughout the majority of the decision though, Massachusetts combatted the Black Bears’ attack with their own speed.
“I mean that team was fast,” said Tyler. “We’ve played some of the best competition in the country with Minnesota, North Dakota and Bemidji State, and they’re right up there with any of them for quickness.”
UMass’ speed paid off early on in the third period when Will Ortiz found some open ice on the power play and lofted a shot past goalie Ben Bishop.
“I didn’t really see it,” Bishop said. “It went through our guy. I don’t even think he got all of it on it. I think he turned it on its side. It was just a weird goal.”
The tally, which evened up the game at one all, would not have been possible if it wasn’t for Quick. Time and time again throughout the night, Quick, with 24 saves, allowed the Minutemen to stay in the game.
“I never think they’re underrated,” Leveille said. “I always think they’re a good team. Their goalie was tremendous tonight. He’s going to be a good goalie all year. He’s one of the best ones I’ve seen so far. He’s always square to the puck and that is what you need from a goalie.”
On the other end, Bishop allowed one goal and collected 16 saves.
“I thought both goalies were fabulous,” said Whitehead. “I thought you saw two of the best goalies in the East. Both should be proud.”
That didn’t mean Bishop didn’t have his struggles. The 6-7 netminder was the first to say how difficult the power outage made life between the pipes.
“They’re a great team, they played hard but it was kind of a funky game,” Bishop said. “The whole situation felt weird. I was just happy with our older guys who in-between that last half got us real focused and then we went out and proved that we were the better team.”
Bishop was speaking specifically about the breakage in play that resulted because of the down lights. Because of the outage the teams were forced to head to the locker room at 7:46 of the second period only to retake the ice 25 minutes later. Upon completion of the second period, each team remained on the ice for the third period, which was then broken down into two ten-minute halves.
“It’s kind of hard, you’re trying to stay focused and then that happens,” said Bishop. “You go off the ice and do some funky ten minute-ten minute thing that just gets you off your game. You just have to stay focused and worry about the next shot, not the lights going off.”
“I told the freshman ‘once a year, get ready for it, maybe twice,’” said Whitehead.
With UMaine up by one in the final minutes of the game, the squad recorded hard-fought empty netters from both Wes Clark and Leveille. The first by Clark came at 19:22 as he dove at a loose puck in the neutral zone and managed to swipe it all the way into the net.
Leveille’s goal with just 11 seconds remaining was his second goal of the night. The first tally at 16:46 of the first period was compliments of a pass from assistant captain and line mate Josh Soares.
“It was just a nice pass from Soares and I was just a little ahead of the defenseman,” said Leveille. “I was thinking about making a move like on my second breakaway and I saw him ready for that, so I just went short side.”
UMaine heads off to play Merrimack and Boston University on the road next week.
“It was a tough win [Saturday],” Bishop said. “It was good to get a win like that under our belt. Now we have to go on the road and be real focused.”
