ORONO- Keenan Suthers scored with 3:45 left in the third period on Saturday evening, propelling the Maine Black Bears to a 3-3 tie with Sacred Heart at the Alfond Arena in Orono in non-conference men’s college hockey action.
Sacred Heart (2-3-1) had taken a 1-0 lead on a goal by Austin Magera at 9:54 of the first period. Maine tied it in the second when Brad Morrissey kept the puck in at the Pioneers blue line, and Jakob Sirota made a nice pass to Matthew Fawcett at the bottom of the right faceoff dot and Fawcett fired a quick shot that went short side on goaltender Justin Robbins at 7:40. The Fawcett marker broke a stretch of 117 minutes and 43 seconds without a Black Bears goal. “He made a really nice pinch there, he went down hit the triangle and fed me right in front, awesome play, awesome play by Morrissey as well”, said Fawcett. The tally was his first in the first game action of the season for the Quinnipiac transfer. The hosts had a good chance to take the lead with a 5 on 3 powerplay opportunity just over halfway through the period but couldn’t convert. Despite a 29-8 edge in shots attempted in the middle period, the visitors from SHU would take the intermission lead. Patrick Dawson purposely fired one off the backboards behind the Maine net and Kevin Lombardi got to it and fired a shot on Matthew Thiessen that was kicked out, but right on the stick of Dakota Raabe who shoveled it into a half empty net at 14:54 to make it 2-1 Pioneers.
The lead was extended when Nick Boyagian tallied at 8:53 of the third period. Maine would battle back though. Just 1:35 later, Adrien Bisson skated down the left wing and let go a hard shot that beat Robbins stick side to cut it to 3-2. Another transfer from St. Lawrence in Suthers drove the net hard and would scoop up a rebound on a shot by Adam Dawe at 16:15 that would send the game to overtime. “Good things happen when you go to the net, and Adam Dawe made a great play to get it through and just get it to the net. It was a bouncing puck and it just laid there for me, fortunate bounce. It looked like it hit the defenders stick and then the goalies pad and just sat right there in the blue paint”, Suthers said. Neither team could manage much offensively in the 3 on 3 overtime as the game ended in a draw. Black Bears head coach Ben Barr said, “I liked the work ethic and compete. I liked the fact that we finished hits and didn’t let guys jump right by us. I mean there were times where we gave up odd man rushes. We’re trying to play aggressive and if one man stops working in the offensive zone that leads to odd man rushes that is why they had alot more room last night, tonight was a little bit better”. On the return of fans and the first home games as head coach Barr added, “It was nice to score a couple goals tonight to give them something to cheer about. This is a special place, special fans, students are unbelievable. I think they respect hard work and I think they appreciate the effort the guys gave tonight, and that is something we need to key in on this year”.
Thiessen made 16 saves in his second consecutive start in net. Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup, Morrissey, Dawe, and Sirota each had an assist each for 0-3-1 Maine. Robbins made 34 stops for Sacred Heart. The Black Bears were 0-3 on the powerplay, while the Pioneers went 0-1. Maine begins Hockey East play when they travel to Northeastern for 7 p.m. contests on Friday and Saturday night.
