Sports

Wildcats claw back into game late, Black Bears fall 5-4

By Nick McCrea

Posted on Dec. 11, 2008, at 12:00 a.m.

The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team let a two-goal lead slip away in the third period of Sunday’s game against the arch-rival University of New Hampshire Wildcats. UNH scored four times in the third period to defeat UMaine.

The Black Bears fell to 10-7-2 overall and 5-5-1 in Hockey East, while UNH improved its record to 9-6-3, with a 6-4-2 record in Hockey East.

UNH netted the first score of the game 5:21 into the first period on a Phil DeSimone short from just inside the blue line that beat UMaine goalie Scott Darling. A scoring flurry started in the second period for UMaine, but UNH took over in the third.

Will O’Neill netted the score at 1-1 on a shot from the blue line 7:41 into the second period. Jeff Dimmen gave UMaine the lead on a wrister from the circle that beat UNH goalie Brian Foster to give UMaine a 2-1 lead. Less than two minutes after taking the lead, the Black Bears doubled their cushion when Tanner House tipped a pass from Gustav Nyquist into the net to take a 3-1 lead, which they took into the second intermission.

UNH roared back in the third period. While on a power play just 1:36 into the third period, Greg Collins scored a goal to cut UMaine’s lead to one. UMaine’s Matt Duffy answered back with a power play goal of his own, stretching the lead back to two.

UNH scored three unanswered goals in the final frame, including one short-handed tally, to hand UMaine the loss after taking the 5-4 lead with 2:21 remaining in the game on a Bobby Butler wrist shot that just found its way under the crossbar.

UMaine goalie Scott Darling stopped 23 shots, while UNH’s Foster turned away 29 attempts.

UMaine travels to Boston on Saturday, Jan. 10 to face the Boston University Terriers at 7 p.m. in another important Hockey East contest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.