The University of Maine men’s and women’s hockey teams finished off their two game Hockey East series on Saturday at Alfond Arena in Orono against Vermont and Boston College respectively, with all four games going to overtime on the weekend.
Saturday afternoon in the women’s game, Boston College scored an extra attacker goal by Hannah Bilka with 1:22 left in the third period, and then got a game winner from Kelly Browne in overtime to take all four points on the weekend with a 2-1 victory.
After a tough 4-3 overtime loss on Friday, Alyssa Wruble staked Maine to a 1-0 lead with a goal at 5:35 of the first period that would stand until the tying tally by Bilka at 18:38 of the third. Browne got an assist by Bilka at 2:18 of overtime to end it. Loryn Porter made 25 saves in the loss for the Black Bears, who sees their record drop to 6-12-1 and 4-7-1 in Hockey East. Kennedy Little and Mira Seregely had assists on the Wruble goal. Abigail Levy made 39 saves for Boston College, who improves to 10-7-0, 8-4-0 in league play. Maine is now on a holiday break and returns to action on Sunday, January 2 for a single game at Vermont.
In the men’s game, Vermont goaltender Gabe Carriere made 50 saves to help the Catamounts end in a 1-1 tie with Maine. The guests would take the extra conference point by winning a shootout 1-0, taking three of a possible four points in the series.
Dovar Tinling scored his first goal of the season to give Vermont a 1-0 lead at 9:17 of the first period. A bad turnover by Carriere in front of his own net led to a marker by Donovan Villeneuve-Houle at 16:21 of the second that tied it. The goal is what eventually sent the game to overtime and was his fifth of the season, also ending a streak of 180:28 without a goal for Maine. The Black Bears had a golden opportunity late in the third with 4:27 to go when Lucas Munzenberger was given a game misconduct, giving the hosts a five minute major powerplay. Despite the extra man situation even lasting 33 seconds into overtime they weren’t able to come though, falling to 3-47 on the powerplay on the season. Philip Lagunov scored the lone goal on Matthew Thiessen in the shootout. Thiessen finished with 16 saves on the night, as Maine outshot Vermont 51-17. Lynden Breen had nine shots on goal, as the Black Bears go to 1-11-3 overall and 1-8-2 in Hockey East. Carter Long and Isak Walther had assists on the Tinling goal for the Catamounts, who are now 3-9-2, 2-4-2 and extend their unbeaten streak to three games. Maine will host two non-conference games with Union College next Friday and Saturday night.
