ORONO- Jake Percival scored a powerplay/extra attacker goal with 37.3 seconds left in the third period Saturday night, as #17 UConn and #5 Maine skated to a 2-2 men’s Hockey East tie at Alfond Arena. The Black Bears would pick up an extra conference point by taking the shootout 1-0, but the Huskies would take four of a possible six league points on the weekend.
Maine had a much better first period both with overall shots on goal and energy then they did in Friday nights 4-2 loss, while also having an opportunity with a 5 on 3 powerplay for 42 seconds at just over the 11 minute mark but couldn’t get anything on the board during that advantage. And just as they had done in five of their previous six games, the Black Bears would allow the first goal. Ryan Tattle broke in down the left wing and threw one on net from the left circle that beat Albin Boija glove side inside the far post at 17:17 for a 1-0 UConn lead. Maine would get even though with just 1.3 seconds left in the stanza when Frank Djurasevic stepped into a Huskies turnover forced by Oskar behind the net in the attacking right circle, and centered out front in the low slot to an open Komarov who fired it into the cage from the low slot on his teams 15th shot of the period. It was the second goal of the season for the freshman and native of Finland.
The teams stayed deadlocked through two periods, as they were about even in shots in the middle stanza (9-7 Maine). The Black Bears would take their first lead of the weekend at the 6:12 mark of the third. Brandon Holt along the farside boards backhanded a pass to Taylor Makar at the top of the left circle, who got a head of stream for a one-timer that went in five-hole past UConn goalie Callum Tung.
Maine held the Huskies to just two shots on net for a majority of the period, and looked like they may hang on to that 2-1 lead in the waining minutes but that changed with just 3:01 remaining. Black Bears forward Ross Mitton was called for contact to the head on Ethan Gardula and was given a five minute major and a game misconduct. Gardula was down for several minutes and needed assistance to get off the ice. The guests took advantage to send the game to overtime, pulling Tung with 1:43 to go to create a 6 on 4 and a Kai Janviriya shot was deflected in by Jake Percival at 19:22 stunning the Alfond Arena faithful. UConn would continue the major powerplay for 1:59 in overtime, but Maine did a good job to kill it off and the teams would settle officially for a 2-2 tie. In a battle for the extra conference point, Nicholas Niemo scored in the first round of the shootout for the Black Bears and Boija stopped all three skaters he faced to give his team a much needed two points in the series.
Boija made 22 saves for Maine with Djurasevic, Sully Scholle, and Holt picking up one assist each while Harrison Scott and Thomas Freel were held pointless in back to back games for the first time this season. The Black Bears were 0-3 on the powerplay and 0-7 in the two games. Tung had 30 stops for UConn, with Percival notching one goal and one assist. The Huskies went 1-3 on the powerplay and are now unbeaten in their last five games moving to 12-8-2 and 7-6-2 in Hockey East. Excluding the empty net goal that was scored in a 3-1 win at UMass-Lowell last Friday (1/10), Maine has now played seven games since the Christmas break without scoring more than two goals vs. an opposing goalie. The Black Bears record stands at 15-5-3 and 7-3-3 in conference play and will now have a week off before returning to action on Friday, January 31 when they host Northeastern at 7 p.m.
Recap written by Chris Lessner
Video highlights courtesy of Maine Ice Hockey on X/Photos courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco/Boija shootout save video and postgame interviews by Chris Lessner
This recap was written by Chris Lessner
Video highlights courtesy of Maine Ice Hockey on X/Photos courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco/Boija shootout save and video postgame video interviews by Chris Lessner
