Maine goalie Matt Morris turns away a shot for one of his 50 saves during Friday nights Hockey East game against Providence. Photo by Anthony Delmonaco.
ORONO- The Maine Black Bears hockey team battled the defending national champion and current #6 team in the country Providence for a full 60 minutes and then some Friday night. But in the end the Friars came away with a 1-0 overtime win at the Alfond Arena in front of 3,688 fans.
Providence is now 10-0-1 against Maine head to head since the last Maine victory which came back in October of 2011.
Maine got a powerplay just 15 seconds into the game but couldn’t cash in. Just five minutes later Providence also had a powerplay chance but Matt Morris stood tall in the Maine net to keep it scoreless. The Friars outshot the Bears 11-4 in the opening period.
Providence really turned things on in the second period with 20 shots on net but the Maine defense did a great job of not allowing any second or third shots in front of Morris and the game remained scoreless headed to the third period. The shots were lopsided in favor of the Friars 31-9.
The Friars once again controlled things in the third period but Maine was also able to generate some chances of their own. Cam Brown broke in alone on Providence goalie Nick Ellis but wasn’t quite able to pull the puck from his forehand to backhand allowing Ellis to swat the puck away with stick. Providence had their best chance with just 25 seconds left in regulation as Nick Saracino found the puck on his stick right in front of Morris after a Maine turnover at their own blue line. Morris though was able to poke check the puck off the stick of Saracino as he also tried going forehand to backhand. The quick thinking of Morris sent the game into overtime.
In overtime, Saracino who was denied at the end of regulation would have the last laugh. Saracino took a pass from teammate Brian Pinho and walked into the high slot and wristed an 18 foot shot that beat Morris glove side to provide the game winner just 2:13 into the extra session.
Head Coach Red Gendron commented on the tough loss after the game,”We played pretty well defensively, they got alot of shots. They had chances in flurries and we defended real well and played real hard. We worked our tails off, playing a pretty good team, taking them to overtime. We have to do a better job offensively, but the way they play, it’s hard to get offense. I thought Matt (Morris) played excellent. I thought he saw the puck well, even with some temporary screens, but I thought his play was superb”.
Morris finished with a career high 50 saves as the final shot total was 51-19 in favor of Providence. Ellis turned away all 19 to earn the Friars their 18th victory overall on the season. Both teams were 0 for 2 on the powerplay. The Friars are now 18-5-4 and 9-3-3 in Hockey East. Maine drops to 7-16-6 and 4-9-2.
The two teams play again Saturday night at 7 p.m.
