Ara Nazarian scored his second goal of the night 1:01 into overtime Friday night, to lead the UNH Wildcats to a 3-2 men’s Hockey East win over Maine at the Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire.
Nazarian scored the only goal of the first to make it 1-0, and also set up Charlie Kelleher on a second period goal to make it 2-0. UNH tried to extend the lead later in the second, but couldn’t convert on a 1:24 five on three advantage.
Maine (9-13-3, 5-6-3 Hockey East) came back though in the third period when Emil Westerlund buried a rebound off a point shot. Westerlunds sixth of the season cut it to 2-1 with 8:14 left. Later in the third with just over two minutes left, Chase Pearson tipped home a Sam Becker point shot to tie the game and send it to overtime. Nazarians game winner came off a faceoff when Maines Pearson and UNH forward Jackson Pierson got tied up on the draw. Nazarian found the loose puck just outside the slot and fired one past Black Bears goalie Jeremy Swayman to end it.
Swayman made 31 saves in the loss for Maine, while Mike Robinson made 37 for UNH in the win. Brady Keeper, Becker, Mitchell Fossier, and Jakub Sirota recorded assists for the Black Bears. Both teams were 0-3 on the powerplay. UNH is now 10-8-8, 6-5-5 in Hockey East. The two game series concludes Saturday night at 7 pm.
