Ty Amonte scored 44 seconds into overtime on Friday night, as the #8 UConn Huskies skated past the Maine Black Bears 3-2 in men’s Hockey East play at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.
Maine took a 1-0 lead on a Jakub Sirota point shot that found the back of the net at 10:50 of the first period. UConn would tie it just 33 seconds into the second on a goal from Chase Bradley, and then 8:36 later took a 2-1 advantage on a tally from Tabor Heaslip. Justin Michaelian tied it back up for the Black Bears with his first goal of the season on a one-timer set up by Brandon Chabrier at 14:35. The Huskies had a long 5 on 3 powerplay advantage late in the period for 1:27, but came up empty in trying to regain the lead. Both teams had some good looks in the third period, but noone scored sending it to the extra session. Amonte won it after he picked off a bad Maine turnover in the neutral zone. Amonte skated over the blue line and into the left faceoff circle, beating Victor Ostman with a wrister glove side to end it.
Ostman finished with 32 saves in the loss for Maine. Chabrier, Michael Mancinelli, Nolan Renwick, and Thomas Freel all had one assist each as the Black Bears fall to 2-5-1 and 0-2-1 in Hockey East. Amonte had a goal and an assist to lead UConn, while Logan Terness made 21 saves in net. The Huskies improve to 8-1-1, 5-1-0 in the conference. The teams finish off the two game series on Saturday at 4 p.m.
